Can you explain this?
I've heard this sentiment before and never really understood it. The common complaints I hear about email are usually inherent in the fact that it's a universal communication mechanism[0], or a symptom of inadequate clients[1].
I can understand the need for better email clients (that's what Gmail originally was, back in the day[2]). But I still haven't been able to find a compelling reason that email itself is fundamentally broken in a way that requires a new system altogether.
EDIT: I should acknowledge that privacy and security are obviously a major issue, and email is by design incompatible with security (Silent Circle tried this and failed, which is why they are creating an alternative protocol). But I generally hear this complaint in other contexts, so I don't think that's the reason.
[0] e.g. "I get too much of it" - thirty years ago, people complained about getting too much physical mail, simply because that's the way all important work was conducted then (dead trees).
[1] Having email clients tailored towards email power users can make up for problems like overwhelming volume - Google's "Inbox" app is an example of this.
[2] Along with providing massive amounts of space (which was itself a hard requirement in order to provide the many client-side improvements it brought).
