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OF Pricing: The great debate of '08 Thread Tools Search this Thread Display Modes
Well I own OO Pro and I broke down and shelled out the $60. Wish it was $40, but then again I just had those Indian lamb chops for $24 I'd better not order to begin with.

You know what, cheapskates? Just say "thank you" every day that you have a privilege of being a Mac user and being catered to by the brilliant bunch of my fellow latte-drinking Seattlites who dare to focus on this rather niche market out of aesthetic calling!

Think about it -- probably those who are going to buy OF are already OO Pro owners. And Omni has to live in this darn expensive corner of the North-West woods we got here. So it's all fair.

Guys and gals, I appreciate what you do. I own two things and may buy more. Sorry about trying to coax a discount before -- but will appreciate it in the future! :)))
 
I also balked at the $80 price. My initial reaction was "No way!"

I worked through the trial period (feedback: too short for $80 software!) and didn't get a great feel for the application, but did see it's potential to replace my paper + rube-goldberg-applescript methods.

What sold me was support, not on OmniFocus, but on OmniPlan (which I also use and absolutely love). Every request I put in gets an immediate (within the day, often an hour or so later!) and personal response from a real person who knows the software. If only half of the other software companies I purchase from could value customer service like OmniGroup!

So, that having been said, there's my answer. I'm waiting a few more days to budget it in, but I'm sold. $80 is a lot, and I agree wholeheartedly with those of you who say you'd prefer $50. I'd have bought it already at $50! But, that $30 more is psychologically trying. It's butting up against the $100 software realm (there's the $10 realm, then the $30 realm, then the $50 realm, then the $100 realm ...) Still, having gone through the pain of the decision process, I am a bit more likely to stick with this software than I would cheaper software.

From a business perspective, $80 loses a lot of customers, I suspect. But, I also suspect that the remaining customers tend towards the "advocate" end of the spectrum instead of the casual "try to fit this into my life and toss it if it doesn't work immediately" realm. There is a real link between what you pay for something and how much value you place on it, and the higher price (which, in retrospect, isn't all that much higher) places it in a different tier.

I do look forward to "bug fixes", though. I found it generally to be very stable and trustable (especially relative to its competition), but it seemed to take up a significant amount of resources when left up over time. I'll investigate more (sample the process and send in feedback to Omni) once I have a licensed copy to play with.
 
Totally random request: do folks have any suggestions for alternate titles for this thread that capture the spirit of the original poster's question, but aren't quite as negative as 'why is it so expensive'?

On the one hand, it's a valuable discussion, and I don't want to muck with that, but on the other, every time it pops back up to the top of the list, the built-in assertion that it is expensive erodes my soul a tiny bit. ;-)

I came up with 'is OmniFocus worth the price?', but wanted to run it past third parties before changing anything. Other suggestions welcomed.
 
What about just "Omnifocus pricing"?
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by RiK View Post
What about just "Omnifocus pricing"?
I agree with Brian that the title for this thread is too negative, it assumes that OF is too expensive - which, of course, it is not. However, Brian's suggestion still carries a negative connotation.

So, I vote for your suggestion "OmniFocus Pricing?", says it all with a neutral connotation. In fact, I would leave off the question mark and simply state "OmniFocus Pricing", period.
 
I'm not sure it would be a good idea to change the title. It's probable that it's gotten such good response because the title is somewhat confrontational. It isn't subtle, and it touches people in the right place that they are drawn into the issue.

As the person who started this thread, I felt that Omnifocus was too expensive. I believe it is a worthwhile tool, and only wish that I could afford it myself.

Judging from the responses here, folks either seem to be evangelic about the software and willing to defend it regardless of price, glad that they were able to get the software at the upgrade discount, or in agreement that it is too expensive as a stand-alone software. What I haven't seen are many people who have joined the ranks of Omni customers as Omnifocus Users. It's a fairly new product, so I'm not going to put that out of perspective.

What I have seen here that pleases me, is that there are a significant number of quality posts that I feel successfully justify Omnifocus's price, by pointing to the integrity of the Omni Group in general. However, these posts don't suggest that Omnifocus is worth the expense itself, but that the development and support are of a quality that does.

As a person who only contacts support when a product breaks or crashes, quality support means something to me but not very much in terms of cash value. Quality development more so, but at such an early stage in a software's life-cycle it's not uncommon to still have a full team (not just three developers) working on the product. So, that takes me right back to my original question: why is Omnifocus, as a piece of software, so expensive?
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by neb View Post
As a person who only contacts support when a product breaks or crashes, quality support means something to me but not very much in terms of cash value. Quality development more so, but at such an early stage in a software's life-cycle it's not uncommon to still have a full team (not just three developers) working on the product. So, that takes me right back to my original question: why is Omnifocus, as a piece of software, so expensive?
Three developers is a full development team for us - because we have incredibly talented folks on the team. Remember; we have 10 developers to spread across all our products. OmniFocus represents over a quarter of our developers.

In general, the number of folks on a team is a poor metric of value.

If I'm understanding what you're saying here correctly, you'd object less to the price if we had more engineers on the team, producing code that required you to contact support more often?

Edit: clarified the developers-to-products ratio.
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by neb View Post
What I haven't seen are many people who have joined the ranks of Omni customers as Omnifocus Users.
I wouldn't read too much into this: the pool of folks willing to post on the forums is not representative of our overall customer base. As someone who reads support mail all day, I see big differences in experience level, to begin with.

[Customer pool] > [Forum readers] > [Forum posters]
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by neb View Post
Judging from the responses here, folks either seem to be evangelic about the software and willing to defend it regardless of price, glad that they were able to get the software at the upgrade discount, or in agreement that it is too expensive as a stand-alone software.
Maybe I'm misinterpreting your meaning, but I object slightly to this assessment. Using terms like "evangelic" and "willing to defend it regardless of price" suggest that enthusiastic customers who are very satisfied with the product and consider the price fair are irrational and have come to their conclusion without good reason.

It's the same stereotyping that is often applied to enthusiastic customers of Apple. They're called "Mac zealots" or referred to as the "Cult of Apple". Sometimes, no offense it intended, but it's still a derogatory label.

Isn't it possible that these enthusiastic customers are technically astute consumers who have looked closely at OmniFocus (or any Omni Group or Apple product, for that matter), compared it to the competition, thought deeply on the matter, and come to a clear conclusion supported by evidence and rational thought?

I'm sure there are plenty of zealots out there, but just because proponents are vocal in their appreciation of the product doesn't mean they're "willing to defend it regardless of price" like some kind of mindless zombies.

Also, many of those who have stated that they're "glad that they were able to get the software at the upgrade discount" have also added that they would have been willing to pay the full price if it had been necessary. And many of those discounts were gained by purchasing OmniFocus early, before it was even released, which, in many ways, is a greater vote of confidence than paying the full price after release.
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by neb View Post
Quality development more so, but at such an early stage in a software's life-cycle it's not uncommon to still have a full team (not just three developers) working on the product.
I would like to note that while there are three coders who are dedicated to the OmniFocus desktop (not iPhone) application, there are not only three people contributing to this project. (Although there is an incredibly impressive wealth of knowledge between those three.)

When that meeting is called or a discussion is formed, there are at least three coders, two support ninjas other than myself, our support manager, at least one person from QA, one person from Marketing and our UI/Documentation person participating in discussions whence OmniFocus is born.

Although, if we count those there representing the voice of the users, I think it jumps to several thousand. :-)

(Sidenote: Brian and I discussed it and we've decided that the name of this thread is not currently representative of its contents. If y'all object, we can always change it back.)
 
 


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