The Omni Group

Oooh, that focal point thing looks pretty usefull

There is no way I would ever pay $15 for this… there's no way I'd pay $1 for this. I don't want OmniDazzle and I'm having a hard time imagining how “OmniProduct” is going to improve my day (maybe I'll be surprised, but OmniDazzle does not leave me with high expectations).

I would however, be willing to pay a lot more for the enhancements that are needed to OmniGraffle, which we consider a real productivity tool, but is missing enough significant features to make me waste far more than $15 worth of time to try and figure out how we can move our entire workflow to Indesign and Illustrator since at least Adobe seems committed to their existing user base and their needs.

The last response to a necessary feature that I got from OmniGroup was:

“As for OmniGraffle 4.2 (which will be the release you speak of), I'm hoping the sooner the better but we're pretty strapped, resource-wise right now, so I'm guessing it will be a fair amount of time away (not to mention that its enhancements and features will be fairly limited). OmniGraffle 5 is so far away I cannot even really see it except for a blurry mass at this point.”

The fact that these other products are consuming so much OmniGroup time and resources that are needed for the things that do effect my daily life

is not reassuring to say the least.

OmniGraffle is a good tool, but needs a lot of work to really make it a great tool. Don't become complacent because Microsoft hasn't written Visio for OSX and don't think that Adobe couldn't provide an OmniGraffle killer with some minor modifications to InDesign.

Speaking of OmniGraffle, any plans to integrate the neat-o Cut Out overlap into OG?  (“Look!  I just drew a Squircle! And a Rectoval!) 

It would sure be a nice interface to the boolean shapes in OG.

Of course I do require multiple master layers per master canvas first. And cable ties. And un-closed shapes (aka Bezier lines).  And integration of Peter McMaster's scripts into a Data Inspector.  :)

Brad,

I'm sorry that you're frustrated by OmniGraffle's pace of development.  OmniGraffle's development hasn't been distracted by OmniDazzle; OmniDazzle is the product of a completely different set of developers.

Updating OmniGraffle is very important to us, and I think if you review our release history you'll find that we've been developing it quite actively, with fourteen public releases over the last year:

2005-06-15 - OmniGraffle 4.0 beta 2

2005-06-29 - OmniGraffle 4.0 beta 3

2005-07-29 - OmniGraffle 4.0 beta 4

2005-08-25 - OmniGraffle 4.0 release candidate 1

2005-08-31 - OmniGraffle 4.0 release candidate 2

2005-09-15 - OmniGraffle 4.0

2005-11-09 - OmniGraffle 4.1 beta 1

2005-11-21 - OmniGraffle 4.1 release candidate 1

2005-11-30 - OmniGraffle 4.1 release candidate 2

2005-12-07 - OmniGraffle 4.1

2006-01-10 - OmniGraffle 4.1 Universal Binary

2006-01-25 - OmniGraffle 4.1.1

2006-03-29 - OmniGraffle 4.1.2 beta 1

2006-05-24 - OmniGraffle 4.1.2 beta 2

Note that we released a Universal Binary version of OmniGraffle on the day that Apple announced their Intel hardware.  This involved a fair amount of effort, immediately on the heels of shipping a major release—so afterward (as is usual following long development pushes) each member of the OmniGraffle team finally got the opportunity to take some time off, leading to the “relatively strapped for resources” state referred to in your message.

Our developers have all returned from their vacations at this point, and the pace of OmniGraffle development has picked up again.

That's great to hear that OmniGroup is so committed to OmniGraffle. I work with a team of people that spend 4-8 hours a day in OmniGraffle. We work on large and complex files and we experience the full gamut of strengths and weaknesses of the product. Various members of the team provide feedback on a regular basis to OmniGroup, in the hopes to help them improve the product and increase our productivity. The feedback that we submit definitely does not fall on deaf ears. OmniGroup often pushes back on us to get clarification to make sure they either understand the issue we are having or the feature that we are requesting. The list of updates to OmniGraffle is impressive. At the same time if you look through the release notes these are primarily bug fixes (as maintenance releases should be).

The concern that I am voicing is in that at the same time that OmniGroup is releasing products that I consider a toy (respecting others may feel differently), the message that I'm getting back is that there are not resources to incorporate critical features in the foreseeable future. If OmniGroup is committed to bringing those features to their product in a timely manner, that's great! In the meantime, I'm going to work at making my workflow as streamlined as possible, regardless of the tool.

That being said, OmniGraffle being that tool is far and away my preference.

By the way, we do recognize that it's largely our own fault that everyone thinks of OmniDazzle as a cursor locator—since, after all, the OmniDazzle web page starts by asking “Lost your cursor?”

People will buy it. It is right priced for its target audience. They are speaking about 30” monitors! Keynote! Powerpoint!

Hi,

As a long term customer of OmniGroup, I'd like to add my two cents.

First, you guys do make great products that make using my Mac more pleasurable. The support and sales staff I've dealt with have been great too.

However, I think the notion “we thrive on the idea that it’s worth paying money for something really, really cool” is flawed unless your definition of cool includes useful. Then, I agree. Thinking people will just pay for cool (so you can support your monitor habit), sounds a bit arrogant. Style should not trump substance. But you guys clearly known that: your products are always carefully crafted and substantial. But maybe tone it down a notch?

I was definitely in the camp that thought 15 bucks for a Cursor Finder was a bit much (no matter how cool), so I think you've done yourself a bit of disservice with your description OmniDazzle (as previously mentioned the OmniDazzle web page starts by asking “Lost your cursor?) but now that I see it does more it might warrant the 15 bucks. I am unsure now. However, I only found that because boredom got the best of me today and I started surfing around.

When I first played with OmniDazzle I thought it was definitely cool, but I personally I was probably not going to fork over 15 bucks for it. But it going me thinking: The other product I find a bit steep in its asking price is OmniDiskSweeper. Maybe you guys should offer these cool little utils at reduce price to your loyal customers who have already have paid for OmniWeb, OmniOutliner Pro, OmniGraffle Pro and a bunch of upgrades.

But at the end of the day, charge whatever you want. A fair price is what the market is willing to pay for something and that's basically it. The market will either support you or not.  And since your developers are all using 30 inch Cinema displays it sounds like you have a good idea what price the market will bear.

So, while I might not personally buy every piece of OmniGroup software (at least until I can afford my own 30-inch Cinema display) , I wish you continued success. The Mac would be a lesser platform without you.

Sure, that makes sense. But sometime I find my swearing at OmniGraffle when it just doesn't work as I'd like. For example, when I am trying to connect lines or read VISVO documents. But that's a tail of woe for another day!

Put me in the camp of thinking OmniDazzle is over priced.  $15 may be a fair price if someone has a specific need for it.  But I think if the price was $8 then everyone who thought it was cool and may have a use for it one day would purchase it.  Even if the lower price was a temporary sale.

I know I would.

I'm still pissed at Omni for dropping OmniWeb.  What?  They didn't drop it?  Oh, that's right.  I did.  I simply got tired of waiting and waiting and waiting for Omni to use the latest versions of WebCore, fix several bugs, and stop the occasional crashing.  I use Safari+SafariStand+Saft+Inquisitor and everything is rock solid and more importantly USES THE LATEST WEB RENDERING ENGINE.

0mG, it's teh rei iN ze front of y00r scr33n!!!!1111!