[whpalmer4]

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...