Google buys reMail iPhone app, then pulls it from App Store

For reasons yet to be revealed, search giant Google has acquired San Francisco-based reMail, makers of the reMail e-mail client for iPhone OS. The company promptly pulled the application from Apple’s App Store, however, leaving users perplexed as to the reasons why.

reMail CEO Gabor Cselle explained in a statement on reMail’s website that the company, and thus the application, had been acquired by Google, and he was hired to work as a product manager on Google’s GMail team. The reMail website already reads “Copyright 2009 Google,” but not all of the links to the now-vacant spot on the iTunes Store have been removed.

reMail, which continues to work for individuals who purchased the application before its removal, was meant to be an alternative to the iPhone’s built-in mail client. The application allowed for full-text search and offline support, among other things. All mail was stored on the phone in such a way that it took up significantly less space when compared to the same amount of mail on Google’s servers.

Read more: arstechnica.com