[Púca]

Originally Posted by dannythefool

It's a bit of a matter of taste. I'm the counter-example. I used a 12" iBook professionally for a very long time (Small, light, fits between one slightly oversized man and the next seat in a train etc.). The iPad has the same pixel count (1024x768) and similar advantages. Today I use a 13" MacBook whose 1280x800 is not significantly larger.

Sure, I had a G3 iBook, too. With a 12" screen at 1024x768 and a precise mouse pointer*, you had a lot of accuracy. Even if the iPad were 12", using a finger instead of a mouse pointer, your accuracy is much, much less (trying to select 2 adjacent objects).

But the iPad is only 9.5", so your accuracy is further reduced. So you have to keep the diagram zoomed in quite a bit and work on a small portion at a time.

*--even using a trackpad on an iBook, you have a mouse pointer on the screen, so you know before you click what object will be selected. Using your finger on an iPad, there is no mouse pointer onscreen and it's very hard to distinguish between adjacent objects.

[Púca]

Originally Posted by Joel

The iPad supports tables and other Pro features like shared layers, etc. Round-tripping between the desktop to the iPad and back again is non-destructive, features that aren't supported on OmniGraffle for iPad won't get lost in that transition.

Omni certainly did that right. Apple is taking a beating because their iPad apps destroy data when roundtripping advanced features like footnotes.

[Brian]

Seems like folks in this thread may be interested in this blog post, so I thought I'd mention it. :-)

[dude]

Originally Posted by whpalmer4

I confess I've never really understood the mindset where person A produces something and person B feels that they should be able to tell person A what to charge, particularly for sales to person B. If, in your opinion, $10 is a fair price for a program like OmniGraffle for iPad, why aren't you selling a comparable, competing program for that price? It's also a bit over the top to be invoking the economy when speaking of software for a $500+ luxury item.

So everyone should be a mute and not give any feedback to the Omni folks and in turn Omni has no idea what their customer base is feeling? As a business owner myself, that sounds weird to me.

Omni has thick skin and can take the feedback like adults. They'll be fine and I assure you they appreciate the feedback no matter how bad or great.

$50 is steep for me a man with every new Apple gadget and software program going. Maybe an intro price of $25 dollars to get the ball rolling and then move to the $50 once the reviews come in.

Or Omni just stays the course and hope for the best because there is no way Omni charges less now regardless.

[dude]

I bought a copy of graffle for iPad today. $50 is a bit steep but time will tell.

[tji]

I am an owner of OmniGraffle Pro, which I run on my 17" MacBook Pro. I also own an iPad, but have not yet purchased OmniGraffle for it. I'm sure you guys are already aware of my type of issues, but I'll throw in my .02 anyway:

- Since I already have OG Pro on a portable device, the first question is whether it's worth $50 for something I've already got a solution for. If the touch interface is a game changer, the answer is yes. But, I'm not sure that will be the case for me. Some operations will be easy and intuitive, but complex operations or quick operations done via keyboard shortcut on my MBP will only be slower.

- Currently I'm using my iPad as a home and travel device, not a work tool. My employer didn't pay for it and would not reimburse for apps on it. So, it stays at home. I also do work from home, and OG would be useful for personal projects too. But, it's harder to justify expenses for this type of work.

- Currently OG stands out on the periphery of current app pricing. For anyone who really uses it, $50 is a great bargain. But, for anyone not yet convinced they will use it the pricing is enough to give pause.


Another way to go would be to offer some limited versions of OG which are stencil limited to do only do one type of chart.. Flow Charts, Org Charts, Network Diagrams, Floor Plans, etc. If those are in the common app range of ~ $10, then you increase the mass market / impulse buy appeal, and the question for the purchaser changes from "is it worth $50?" to "should I buy the 3 mini-apps I want, or just go for the unlimited version?".

[dude]

So far, the iPad version has not been all that useful. I tend to pull out my notebook and get to it when on the road. I am on the road this week for the week and time will tell the tale for sure.

[Dogsbreath]

I got OmniGraffle with educational discount because of my job. I use it very rarely, but what I turn out always impresses my Visio (on WinPC) using colleagues. When the pricing came out for v5 I sat on my hands and decided to make do with v4.2.2. I just didn't use the app enough to feel that it was worth spending the money on the upgrade.

When I look at my Mac i realise that there is a hell of a lot of software on their that was registered and rarely gets used: ChronoSync, VoodooPad, Fetch, DiskBlaze, Stuffit, Audio Hijack Pro, SoundConvertor, and the list goes on and on.

My iPad will be turning up as soon as Apple release them to us Europeans at the end of this month. I had initially decided to buy OmniGraffle and OmniFocus (when the latter reaches the big screen), but seeing the price of OmniGraffle I just can't justify the purchase. I am just not serious enough of a user to need it that badly.

Omni need to pay their staff to develop and market the app. I can't argue with that, but that doesn't make it easier to justify the cost of the app for me. Now we have a 30 day money back scheme to tempt us with, but somehow I am still not tempted. I would have rather bought it for less and swallowed the bitter pill of it didn't work out for me.

If you can justify it and afford it then go ahead and buy it, however, even as a stand-alone app I can't at this price. I would like it and because of what I do for a living plenty of people get to hear me evangelising about Mac and their products, as well as what others offer in software terms for the Mac platform.. Things must be bad on the PC side as some of the real PC diehards are that I know are coming to our platform.

[Ken Case]

We feel that OmniGraffle for iPad offers incredible value at its $49.99 price: it offers much of the functionality of the $99.95 Mac app (and even some of the functionality of the $199.95 Pro app), but in a much more approachable interface which has been completely redesigned for the iPad and with some of its own exclusive features such as freehand drawing support.

But you don't have to take our word for it: if you read OmniGraffle's App Store reviews, you'll find that its average rating is over 4.5 stars (out of 5.0). You'll also find many happy customers commenting on twitter, such as this quote from earlier this evening:

@jarrethardie: Omnigraffle for iPad is one of the best applications I've used on any platform. So intuitive. Well done Omni crew! #omnigraffle #ipad

And if you live anywhere near an Apple Store, you can try OmniGraffle before you buy it: it's one of the apps on Apple's demo iPads.

OmniGraffle for iPad has only been on sale for a little over six weeks, yet it's already been purchased by over 7,000 customers. Its sales have been steady and strong, placing it consistently near the top of the App Store's top grossing apps (it's currently #10). If you do take the plunge but find that you're unsatisfied with your purchase, as you've noted we offer a 30-day money-back guarantee on all our apps. (Despite this unprecedented offer, less than 0.5% of OmniGraffle's 7,000+ purchasers have asked for their money back.)

That doesn't mean that OmniGraffle is for everyone, certainly: it's intended for people who find it a useful productivity tool and will use it frequently for months and years, not for people who only use it once in a blue moon. But for the people who do get frequent long-term use out of it, at $49.99 it's an incredible bargain.

[hypotyposis]

Originally Posted by Ken Case

We feel that OmniGraffle for iPad offers incredible value at its $49.99 price: it offers much of the functionality of the $99.95 Mac app (and even some of the functionality of the $199.95 Pro app), but in a much more approachable interface which has been completely redesigned for the iPad and with some of its own exclusive features such as freehand drawing support.

But you don't have to take our word for it: if you read OmniGraffle's App Store reviews, you'll find that its average rating is over 4.5 stars (out of 5.0). You'll also find many happy customers commenting on twitter, such as this quote from earlier this evening:

@jarrethardie: Omnigraffle for iPad is one of the best applications I've used on any platform. So intuitive. Well done Omni crew! #omnigraffle #ipad

And if you live anywhere near an Apple Store, you can try OmniGraffle before you buy it: it's one of the apps on Apple's demo iPads.

OmniGraffle for iPad has only been on sale for a little over six weeks, yet it's already been purchased by over 7,000 customers. Its sales have been steady and strong, placing it consistently near the top of the App Store's top grossing apps (it's currently #10). If you do take the plunge but find that you're unsatisfied with your purchase, as you've noted we offer a 30-day money-back guarantee on all our apps. (Despite this unprecedented offer, less than 0.5% of OmniGraffle's 7,000+ purchasers have asked for their money back.)

That doesn't mean that OmniGraffle is for everyone, certainly: it's intended for people who find it a useful productivity tool and will use it frequently for months and years, not for people who only use it once in a blue moon. But for the people who do get frequent long-term use out of it, at $49.99 it's an incredible bargain.

Dude, Ken, you hardly need any justification. Maybe if you were a small independent developer it would make sense to attack you on pricing, but obviously you guys know what you are doing (see: sales figures) and I doubt you'd have gone there without any marketing research.
As a very happy user of OG iPad and OmniGraphSketcher iPad, I have absolutely no regret bumping up my student loans to afford your software. I'm guessing that my use of those two apps in the past few months has been atypical: I've just finished my first year of med school, and I've used Omni apps on the iPad as a learning/memory tool. In my particular case (which I realize might not apply to many other users), the ipad interface was a game changer, in combination with Omni apps.
For instance, I "recited" complex graphs for physiology on graph sketcher or neuroanatomy pathways in OG. Being able to draw those pathways or graphs using my hands is radically different from doing it on a computer for my purposes: there's no memorization value in typing things up or drawing them with a mouse, whereas the iPad is as close as you can get to pen and paper. The added value of the omni apps was that they enabled me to render material that is pretty dry and complex in an immediately beautiful format, smoothing curves and drawing perfect shapes from my imperfect traces. While I could have, and indeed did use pen and paper for the same purpose, the superposition of many lines and the difficulty in rendering complex graphs by hand, or in selecting and instantly changing the colour or appearance of an element meant that Omni's iPad apps allowed me to see many connections in the stuff I was drawing that I would have missed out on if doing everything on pen and paper. I'm not going to credit Omni with my passing physio and neuro (sorry guys!), but your apps helped a lot. What's more, I now have beautiful charts in my iPad that I can return to and modify as I go along. That gives me an excuse to recycle mountains of notes :cool:
For certain, there's some features that are still missing (auto-scroll in OG, pretty please? [jk, I already sent in a feature request]). But my now modestly long experience with Omni software (OmniFocus helped a lot with finishing my Ph.D.!), I know for a fact that those developments will come and be solidly implemented at a decent pace.
So, thank you, Omni, from a poor medical student who doesn't regret his $50 (and however much graphsketcher was). Now, of course, if you want to send me OF iPad and OmniPlan iPad for free, that *will* help a lot with my increasingly un-repayable financial debt :D