Another one will soon bite the dust. After 6 years of operation and over 5 million users, the notebook app and service Springpad will be shutting down on June 25, ceasing all its operations, including the syncing and storage of online user data.

Springpad started out as a strong competitor to Evernote, at least back in the days when Evernote still wasn’t the fully-featured service it is today. Though to be fair, Springpad wasn’t exactly competing with Evernote feature for feature. It offered features and a workflow that resembled organizers and personalized notebooks more than the digital dumping ground that Evernote wants to be. In fact, some have likened it more to a semi-intelligent personal assistant since it can smartly categorize content without the user having to lift a finger.

Unfortunately, while it did have its share of fans and users, business was apparently not exactly booming. 5 million users doesn’t come close to the 100 million that Evernote just recently celebrated. Suffice it to say, Springpad is throwing in the towel. After June 25, Springpad’s online presence and activities will stop, including its Springpad.com website, online features of its mobile apps, as well as the storage of personal data on Springpad’s servers. In the meantime, an export tool will soon be provided to help users claim their data, back it up, and migrate it, perhaps to other formats.

So far, that tool hasn’t been announced yet, with just a month before doomsday. It will be quite sad to see a unique app and service say goodbye, but it will be interesting to see if anyone will try to pick up where Springpad left off. It could even come to pass that Evernote will eventually add some of those features, though they might not exactly be in line with Evernote’s overall vision and design strategy.

SOURCE: Strategy

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