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Originally Posted by garrsmith
I understand. However, OmniGraffle for IPad can stand alone.
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It's a completely different animal, not used in anything resembling the same way that a project planning tool is used.
Again, a different animal. While I am reasonably sure that it will be possible to use OmniPlan for iPad as a standalone app, just like OmniFocus, it will most likely be the case that it is a much more powerful tool when used in conjunction with the desktop app, just like OmniFocus.
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The years is what has me concerned. What if it takes another 12-24 months to develop omniplan 2.0 for Mac?
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That would mean that they had it in beta for at least 15 months. It's also the case that OmniPlan 2.0 for Mac is much closer than OmniPlan for iPad; there are bugs that need fixing, and some features that still need to be implemented or completed, but the bulk of the work has been done. They haven't even started mocking up an iPad UI for OmniPlan; it can't even display an existing plan, much less edit or create! If they were to drop everything related to OmniPlan 2 and concentrate on getting some sort of OmniPlan iPad app out, we'd probably be talking sometime this summer, based on the efforts involved in OmniGraffle, OmniGraphSketcher, and OmniFocus for iPad. My estimation is that it would be a less compelling product for many buyers than OmniPlan 2.0 because the only truly new functionality would be the ability to run on the iPad, unlike OmniPlan 2.0's raft of collaboration features which make it useful to a whole new set of people.
Here's a question for you: what possible upside is there for Omni in publicly committing to a timeline? Does that somehow help them deliver a better product? No. Does it make you happier if they give a date and it isn't the date you want to hear? No. Does it make people purchase the software in advance? No. Does it make you happier if they give a date (whether you like it or not) and they significantly miss it? No. Omni's stated viewpoint has been (for as long as I can remember) that if you need something now, and they can't sell that something to you now, you should buy something else that works for you, rather than waiting until when they think they'll have something. They are confident that they are building something good, and that sufficient numbers of copies will sell to make the project worthwhile, even if they aren't the first on the market. Some of the buyers will be people who bought something else first. That confidence is a good thing, because it gives them the ability to work until they think it is a product worth its price tag instead of rushing something out the door.