Today Microsoft confirmed that they have acquired 6Wunderkinder the company who created the Wunderlist app that allows you to manage and track your daily to-do list, reminders and errands.
This acquihire comes on the heels of other recent additions to the Redmond company such as Sunrise (Calendaring) and Acompli (Email).
By the way, Wunderlist already has integration with Sunrise.
If you have been watching Microsoft’s cross platform push, then this news should not be a surprise as Wunderlist is offered across seven different platforms right now:
- Windows 7
- Windows 8
- Mac
- Android & Android APK
- iPhone, iPad & Apple Watch
- Windows Phone
- Amazon Appstore
- Chromebook
Actually, make that eight platforms as it is also accessible via the web.
As with any company or app that is picked up by a larger company concern about how that might change the company and their approach to the product/service creeps into the picture quickly from customers.
Microsoft does their part for the more than 13 million customers of Wunderlist by stating that the app will remain free across all markets and there will be no price change for the Wunderlist Pro and Business subscriptions. They also gave assurances that third party apps and integrated services will remain intact.
While that is what you expect the acquiring company to say, I found a read through the comments on the post written by Wunderlist’s Founder and CEO Christian Reber to be a lesson in being who you are.
The typical congratulatory comments have been left on the posting but there are also a few customers who expressed a lot of concern about the acquisition and how that might change Wunderlist as a company.
The moderator of the comments, Simon Chan, is the Community Manager for the company and he works very hard to put those concerns at ease and addressed the congratulatory comments and the concerns equally.
In the course of allaying fears and accepting congratulations for the team Simon also revealed some things that are on the horizon for Wunderlist as they join Microsoft:
- They will remain in Berlin where the company was founded nearly five years ago.
- The trust they have earned from their customers is important to them and not taken lightly.
- The company feels like Microsoft shares their vision of reinventing productivity.
- Currently integration with OneNote is planned but a lot of customers were asking for Cortana, Outlook and Microsoft Band hooks as well however, those are not currently on the radar.
- Wunderlist will continue to be offered cross platform as it is now including regular updates.
- They are working on Wunderlist for Work which will eventually replace Wunderlist for Business.
- Joining Microsoft means bigger and better releases/features.
I guess when a startup is acquired the environment can be like wearing rose colored glasses but it certainly seems that their open attitude is a good fit for the new Microsoft we have been seeing over the last year or so.
