Fwiw, I agree with ssh that it feels awkward to pay for another version. And why is the iPad version more expensive than the iPhone version?

The most professional approach would have been to make the app both iPad and iPhone compatible.


I understand that it cost money to develop different versions, and OF is a great product, so I shouldn't complain. OF *is* worth the money. But it's awkward anyway...


/$0.02

Issue with that is that making the app universal does neither reduce the development cost for both apps nor does it change the financial calculations of OG. Simply put they need to make a certain amount of money to cover costs and invest, usually plus some reserves. "Costs" includes that all the fine people working there want to make decent money for their living.

That means that if they would now merge the apps for iPad and iPhone they would sell less apps and hence would have to adjust price to still meet their quota (that is under the premise that there are people using both the iPhone and iPad version, otherwise it would be less relevant).
Would you be willing to pay 60 bucks for a version working on both your devices insted of 30 plus 40 (or how much it actually is)?

There's another downside to having a combined iPad/iPhone app. Omni seems to work on the apps in a cycle, at times. A new feature appears in one version, then another, with each revision taking advantage of lessons learned on the other platform(s). Would iPad users be better off if Omni had delayed Forecast view for the iPad until they had an implementation for the iPhone (never mind the Mac, which apparently isn't going to get it until 2012 at the earliest)? I think the answer there is pretty clearly "no"! There's clearly common code between the iPad and iPhone versions, but much of the difference between the two appears to be UI code which isn't shared, and quite a bit of the development work in the latest builds appears to be UI code, judging from a quick glance at the release notes. None of the Universal apps that I use seem to roll out new features for just one of the platforms at a time. So, with a Universal app, not only do you have to pay Omni to develop for and support a platform you don't use, you may have to wait for Omni to write code for it, too! Then to add insult to injury, you end up with an app that has a bigger footprint.

I use all three versions of OmniFocus, and I've never thought that I would have been better served had they built a Universal app. Now, if they had neither an iPad nor an iPhone app, I think a somewhat stronger case could be made for building a Universal app (though the issues above still may apply). Somehow, though, I don't expect to see a Universal app for OmniPlan on iOS, and that's the only one left with no iOS app whatsoever...

That's a good point, yes. Although I am not sure how universal apps work in regards to features, can you "set" them to recognise the device you are running it on and then select one of two different app versions accordingly? So that sub-version iPad could have a feature that sub-version iPhone does not? Of course this is getting mighty theoretical and overly complicated from here... :p

[QUOTE=Christian;102630]Would you be willing to pay 60 bucks for a version working on both your devices insted of 30 plus 40 (or how much it actually is)?[/QUOTE]

Some people only use iPad or iPhone and neither would pay $60 for an app.

I also wonder how many people started with the cheaper iphone version and then added the ipad version (I actually went the other way) or the Mac version. the iphone is a relatively cheap way to get into OF.

Are the iOS apps worth using standalone?
 

[I]"The App Store policy and the longstanding Omni Group policy agree: minor updates should be free. Of course, if there is a major overhaul of the application with lots of shiny new features, we may release it as a new product, and that would cost money. But bug fixes, minor features, and miscellaneous polishing come at no cost."[/I]

[QUOTE=Ken Case;88401]If your needs would be met just as well by a $5 to-do list app, then OmniFocus might not be giving you the value we're trying to provide—which means it might not be the right app for you.[/QUOTE]

This

[QUOTE=Ken Case;88401]I think the value equation works in everyone's favor, as the total package is worth more than the sum of its parts: [/QUOTE]

I couldn't agree more. I've been an OmniFocus user since the original alpha version was launched and a day 1 adopter on all three platforms.

I can't begin to quantify just how much time I've saved thanks to Omnifocus but it would be fair to say I'd more than got my money's worth in the first week of ownership and everything since then has been a bonus :)