[wilsonng]

Originally Posted by Jpatrick

So development company spends most of their money
on support instead of development? :) I'm not sure if it's good for the product
which is stuck in 90s.

I wouldn't buy a car unless I knew that there is a very reliable mechanic or garage that can work on my car.

I wouldn't want to buy software and find out that there is little or no tech support to answer my questions or record our feature requests.

Tech support is essential to any product (software or hardware) and is usually included in the price of the software.

If I buy a cheap Made in China mp3 player for $20, I don't expect it to last long and I don't expect the great features that I can find on my iPod touch.

There should be NO learning curve for the productivity software especially on Mac. Macs are here to help us too! That's why I'm so disappointed. I repeat - I tried every GTD software available with no luck. Existing computerized GTD solutions don't make sense until they:
1) adopt simple tools that at least exist in physical lists world - like markers, or paper color
2) have zero-learing curve
3) extend GTD, adding existing concepts like Reminders, Smart Lists (don't say it's OF's Perspective - it's not), Calendar
4) allow sharing and collaboration

Wow... I would love productivity software that had zero learning curve. I'd have mastered Adobe Suite in a heartbeat. Or it can telepathically read my mind and tell me what to do. Unfortunately, Siri is still a long way off from that. Telepathy is a whole other 100 years away at this point.

Computers were supposed to make life easy for us and create this utopian "Paperless Office." Unfortunately, the laws of unintended consequences just generated even more paperwork, more glitches (like a banking error or mistyped billing statement). So computers don't necessarily make life easier.

Come on! It's web 2.0 century! We have multiuser environment and projects become more and more complex. Even one-man project is now much more complex comparing to 5 years ago. Look at the modern shiny todo apps like Wunderlist! They are "simple" todo lists which have more functions and more convenient and clear than overpriced omnifocus "professional" app.

Yes, it is the web 2.0 and OmniFocus, as it exists today, is missing out on the multi-user environment. At this moment, I'm part of a team that is using Asana to assign tasks for the whole team. I'm not liking it but it works OK for our team. But even Asana seems to pale in comparison to something more full featured like OmniPlan.

From what I gather, it appears that OmniFocus may remain a single-user program for individuals to manage their tasks and OmniPlan would be the heavy duty project manager which can send tasks that are assigned to individual OmniFocus users. Think of OmniFocus as the client program and OmniPlan as the server program. Not all of us needs a server package. So it may be kept separate.

For those of us who don't need the multi-user capabilities, OmniFocus would be fine. But for those of us who need multi-user workgroups, then adding an OmniPlan would be the next option.

Only the flies on the wall at Omni HQ know what is going on. But even the Omni crew are probably adjusting plans, goals, and ideas along the way.

Remember, there was a tremendous shift for many software companies when the iPad first came out. Shortly after Steve Jobs introduced the iPad, many developers had announced new plans to take advantage of the iPad phenomenon. That definitely threw Omni's road map up in the air when they had to allocate resources to iPad versions. Yes, not everybody has unlimited resources and can just do everything and still have time for a slice of pumpkin pie.

The introduction of multiple on-line web apps in the project/task management will probably influence what Omni does. I can't imagine that Omni isn't taking notice of web site likes Asana.

Omnifocus is stuck in 90s. Even the design is so weak.
I think what is holding Omnifocus from developing is the absence of real competition on the market.
But I'm afraid when they face a real competition that will be too late.

I don't necessarily think OmniFocus is stuck in the 90s. We've had many improvements such as the new Omni Sync Server that allows us to more easily share tasks between computers and iDevices. We've had the introduction of the iPhone and iPad versions of the iPad. This is showing that Omni Group is definitely not keeping still.

Now the design and workflow may have become 90'ish because it has its roots in OmniOutliner. OmniFocus 2 is probably the opportunity to break away from the outliner mode and introduce a different workflow.

But if this happens, I can only imagine the backlash when existing customers have to re-adjust their workflow to fit the new workflow and features in version 2.