The Omni Group

I'm very curious (and I don't expect an explicit response) about your pricing for these apps. Apple's setting another (poor, IMHO) bar for app pricing with the $9.99 marker for each of the iWork apps. I personally *CLEARLY* recognize the higher value of OmniGraffle and would be willing to pay more than $9.99 for it - but I'm curious as to your thoughts on the pricing bar and the influence it'll have over higher grade applications.

Will the OmniFocus iPhone app transfer as is to the iPad? I'll definitely be getting one, though I'll be waiting til the 3G version comes out (April, I'm assuming). For my needs, I'll be looking forward to the OmniFocus and the OmniOutliner apps most of all.

Thanks for doing this.

I just love you guys! Great products and a fantastically open attitude to what you're planning. I'm most excited by the prospect of iWork on the iPad and to be able to get “oWork” (i.e. The OmniApps) too would just seal the deal for me. The touch interface would be just thrilling to use for Omni Graffle, which I use for drawing schematics for my work (I design video projections for theatre shows) and the idea of shuffling objects around, drawing in lines representing the cables connecting the kit, stretching boxes and graphics by pinching. Goosebumps :)

So, I say unleash the OmniHounds, and I'll look forwards hugely to the results…

That sounds fantastic! I am most excited about OmniFocus and OmniOutliner, and OmniGraffle and OmniGraphSketcher are very well suited for the iPad UI.

Can't Wait!

Connor P

You have a hard-working, incredibly talented team of people, and I look forward to what will no doubt be Best of Class apps… well worth the wait!

@joe don't worry about apple pricing.

in the real world although many apps are 99cent come-ons the closest thing to omnigraffle on the ipod is the japanese app called zeptopad and that has always been twenty bucks.

and omnifocus for iphone has never tried to undersell bento either!

OmniOutliner for the iPad would be killer.  Great for taking notes in class.

Tassia - iPhone applications will run on an iPad with no modification. You can run them in the center of the screen (iPhone-sized) with a black border around the edges, or you can activate a mode that doubles the pixels. (So the app uses more of the screen, but looks blockier.)

We expect that the eventual iPad versions will give the best experience, but until we can get those done, you'll be able to use all the apps you already own on your devices.

I agree that an “Omni” suite of products on the iPad will be awesome. Count me in. Where can I send my money.  :-)

Just to add another thought.  Some kind of an authoring tool for epub documents will be needed also.

As soon as I saw Apple demonstrate Keynote on the iPad, I thought “I want OmniGraffle on that!”.  I'm fine with waiting a bit for your next version on the Mac, since Omnigraffle already does everything I need it to.

Thanks for filling us in on your plans.  I can't wait to see your apps on the iPad.

-jcr

@ Mike Harris

Wake up and smell the future. ;)

Personally I'd rather see resources devoted to OmniFocus 2 with things like tags, tighter OmniPlan integration, etc. on the Mac. Or even the rumored OmniContact….

Wonderful news, I'll certainly be buying Omnigraffle and outliner!

[...] Omni Group is bringing five of their applications to the iPad, including OmniGraffle and OmniOutliner. They’re excited about the iPad because: Remember how Macintosh was intended to be the computer “for the rest of us”? That’s what we feel Apple’s iPad is: the best computing device for most of the things people use computers for. [...]

Wohoooo. And that is for both: the fact that you intend to develop dedicated iPad apps (no matter what price you choose, they will be reasonable i'm sure) and that (and how) you share this information with your customers! Well done!

Can I just say that I'm an software interaction designer by trade, and I have the pleasure of being able to use Omnigraffle for my daily work. The one major app I believe the iPad would be perfectly fitting for would be a touch-based version of Omnigraffle. I'm thinking of the existing Omnigraffle basic eature set, but with the one key addition of being able to draw with your finger a shape, and the software determines what shape you were trying to draw and automatically corrects it to the properly- drawn shape. Draw something that has four roughly straight lines all at kinda 90 degrees to each other, and the software corrects it automatically to a square. It would make mocking-up designs so much easier than using either a mouse and keyboard or a pen and paper.

Guys, please make this happen. If any third-party can do pro-grade apps on the iPad, it would be you guys.

[...] Read the full blog post from Ken. [...]

You guys rock! I can't wait to see OO, OF and OG on the iPad. If it means that I have to wait for the next (and long awaited) major releases for the Mac - fine by me!

As for the pricing: You know that you can charge anything you want.  ;-)

Seriously: 9,99 Euros for each would be nice, but even 15,99 as for OF would be reasonable.

Oooh - Omnigraffle is going to the be first app I buy for my iPad!  Awesome!

So glad to here about this.  I am so excited about the ipad.  I have macbook and iphone, but sometimes I DO want something I can carry around a little easier for just email, reading, calendar planning, and TASKS..

Great job

the moment I saw iwork on the ipad, I wanted all the omnigroup applications on it.

-

I don't care about what nay-sayers says :  the iphone/ipad sdk is very powerful (it's the mac os x one without old stuff),  the cpu is an arm (standard), and I see no problem in a computing platform without complications.

(and yes I'm also a linux user and I understand the importance of freedom software but I also understand the importance of a SIMPLE and NATURAL _tool_ )

I will buy

Yip dee doo! Bring on Omnifocus for the iPad. I wish Omni all the best and know they will all be superb products in your fine tradition.

I’m delighted and excited that you will be releasing the Omni application suite for the iPad. The one I’m most interested in is Omni Outliner Pro. I developed a comprehensive Omni Outliner checklist for auditing solid waste operations.

Now, I print it out and take it with me. I check off each item and handwrite notes in the margins. Then I have to enter my scribbling into my computer. What a waste of time.

I’ve always envisioned cradling a iPad, actually at the time I was envisioning a Mac tablet, but iPad will do, in one arm while checking off items and writing notes directly on the iPad. This is easy and efficient.

As you can imagine, I was disappointed that the iPad doesn’t accept handwriting input. Not everybody has they luxury to type while they work. Perhaps you could figure out how to add handwriting input to Omni Outliner.

The ability to write directly on the iPad would be a boon to the rest of us who use checklists on clipboards as part of our workflow. Just think of doctors on their daily rounds, coaches during practice, operation auditors in the field, or investigators at accident or crime scenes just to name a few. Typing on the job for us just doesn’t cut it. Some of us still have to write the old fashion way, with pen in hand.

For now, just having the capability to write directly into Omni Outliner would be a time saver, but in the future, the ability to turn that handwriting into typed text would be Star Trek. Don’t you just love technology.

I'd been wavering on whether or not to buy an iPad, but I would buy one just for OmniGraffle.

OmniGraphSketcher on a tablet! Economics and mathematics students rejoice!

@TIM REID oWork! Perfect coinage there. I use omnigraffle and keynote every day (tech director for ad agency) so the idea of having BOTH my favorite apps for creating functional specs on the iPad fills me with joy.

The prospect of directly manipulating a flow chart, whilst geekward in extreme, is going to cut my production time by half.

Fantastic.

It's not a gamechanger, it's the game

To prevent OmniFOO N+1 to eat the sales of OmniFOO N, at the some time when you see sales of OmniFOO N dropping, offer a future upgrade to N+1 with each purchase of N.

Just wondering what you have been waiting for?

Sure some of the products aren't really applicable for the iPhone - but after 2 years I thought you might have had something out for Omni Outliner?

In the mean time I have moved on to other programs which have been almost as good and infinitely more portable on my iPhone.

What's the Bust Deadline? 6 months? 12 months?

OmniGraffle is a great app for the iPad platform.  And I'll certainly pick up OmniOutliner too.

This is *fantastic* news for me. Top of my personal priority list is OmniOutliner, followed by OmniGraffle.

Just make sure there's some way for me to swap files with the Mac versions, please!

OmniOutliner is the one application that I absolutely wanted to see make an appearance on the iPad. Thanks for being so prompt to commit!

OmniGraffle and OmniOutliner on the iPad! Dorkily exciting. I have a feeling that I will split my time evenly between MacBook Pro and iPad, and lean towards the latter.

Awesome news.  Omnigraffle was one of the first apps I thought of when I saw the iPad.  It will no doubt be a wonderful experience.

I've been using OmniOutliner for so long I can't remember, it's probably the first app I bought for OS X. I'm looking forward to buying it for the iPad as well as OmniGraffle.

Looking forward to a real mobile computing experience

OmniGuys, you rock. Don't know how else to say it.

I'm an owner of OmniGraffle Pro and OmniOutliner, and I had two OmniWeb licenses back in the day. And I'm seriously thinking about buying OmniGraphSketcher.

But I must say that I'm very pleased you'll be bringing your great productivity apps to the iPad.

Can't wait!

Jon W. And Mike Harris…

Instead of complaining, read the blog post again… They are saying that the team working on OmniOutliner is booked up working on a major release. That clearly implies they are going to deliver on that before moving the team to the iPad version.

“Similarly, the OmniOutliner team is also heavily into a major development cycle—one which affects not only the next major release of OmniOutliner, version 4, but also the upcoming major releases of both OmniFocus and OmniPlan—so that team is booked up for at least the next several months”

I personally think it is awesome that they are making iPad versions of these applications. Can't wait to get my iPad and Omni apps.

I've been hoping for an iPad version of OmniOutliner since Wednesday's events (and of course I would've loved one for the iPhone as well, although I see how it makes less sense than an iPad version).

I'm incredibly excited for the release of all of these apps and glad that you decided to let us know in advance.

I'm happy to be able to stay in the Omniverse when it comes to productivity.

PS: How “magical” will it be to use OmniGraffle on the iPad .... I can't wait.

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We need more announcements like this. 

I gotta know where you guys are headed… so that I can OmniPLAN and OmniFOCUS on it!

Loved that you gave us a head's up - Your success is our success.

How bout using this blog to keep us in the loop more often?

Seriously, I want to plan on it.

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[...] travelers, bloggers and people like me who just can’t stay without. And not only iWork: In a blog post, Omni Group has committed to bringing five of their productivity apps to the iPad including [...]

[...] support as the iPod I’m good. OmniGroup is going to release all five apps for the iPad, Omni blog post. I do not know about Things, but I do not use the existing iPhone app because of the lack of cloud [...]

[...] Group se ha mostrado muy interesado en el iPad, hasta el punto de que han anunciado que piensan crear versiones para el iPad de sus cinco aplicaciones: OmniGraffle, OmniOutliner, [...]

Kudos for embracing the future and computing for the rest of us. Omni has the talent to make at least one killer app for iPad thus justifying its purchase alone.  Remember how the Mac made boring tasks fun? iPad with the help of talented developers will make those tasks so engaging you can't take your hands (fingers) off them!

This is great news, but I think that the lack of multi-tasking on the iPad presents both a problem for everyday users of these apps (like me) and an incredible opportunity for Omni to really exploit this platform.

I am a doctoral student and I have relied on OmniOutliner Pro, OmniGraffle and OmniGraphSketcher as the perfect set of tools for taking notes in class, ever since my undergrad days. While in class, I type text notes in OmniOutliner while I simultaneously create and add the graphs, charts, sketches and flowcharts that most professors like to add to slides or write on the chalkboard. This works reasonably well, but I think it is not an ideal model for the iPad since it will only allow me to work in one application at a time.

I think the perfect iPad app would integrate these features into one amazing notetaking app. Maybe it is still OmniOutliner based, but I want to be able to add an OmniGraffle-type flowchart or a OmniGS graph without having to switch apps. (Remember, I'm still taking down the prof's notes here!) Maybe I would just draw a box in OmniOutliner and then click one of the great new contextual menus to say “This is an OmniGraphSketcher frame” and the appropriate tools would pop-up. I could add to the graph in the frame while I continue to take notes outside the frame.

Even if the design tools from OmniGraphSketcher and OmniGraffle were just a limited subset of the full-featured versions, this would be an absolutely killer app! This is how we write notes on paper and the absence of an integrated app like this explains why most students still use the ol' spiral-bound.

Oh, and one more thing—how about creating an app called OmniEquation? I want to be able to draw a math or statistics equation (or even just a symbol like Greek characters mu or alpha) and be able to quickly add it to my notes, ideally in LaTeX or at least as an image. It doesn't have to calculate…just be clean and recognizable as a formula. That would be amazing!

I would gladly pay $30 for such an app on the iPad and I think most of my classmates would as well. If Omni decides to do this, may I suggest that you ask actual college students to give you copies of their class notes from a variety of fields? I think you would see that there is a definite need for a REAL notetaking app, one that allows clean, quick input of multiple content types…and that the iPad is the perfect platform for it!

This is great news.

Watching the keynote, my initial feelings for the iPad were lukewarm, but that only lasted until the moment that Jobs said it would run iPhone apps. At which point I'd wanted one just for OmniFocus.

When I bought my first PowerBook (Gigabit Ethernet), I was introduced to OmniOutliner and I have been a fan ever since.  It is 2010 now and my 550 MHz processor is obsolete.  Therefore, I will be buying the new Apple iPad in May.  Thank you for seeing the big picture and upgrading your applications to work with the iPad!

THANK YOU so much for committing the development of Omnigraffle for the iPad.  I use graffle every day on the Mac and this announcement just solidified my purchase of the iPad.  Killer App indeed.

I use OmniOutliner for plotting out my comics, and I'm definitely getting an iPad. I'll definitely get your OmniOutliner app.

OK, so maybe I am the only dissenting opinion here (unless they've been removed)… Currently there are a lot of bugs in OGP, some of which have been there for several versions. So now you're going to allocate resources to creating a totally new version for the iPad?

Unless it's going to be primarily a consumptive app (mostly displaying already existing graffle files, not creating new ones), I can't see how an OG app would be at all useful to anyone who has needs beyond the most simplistic. A typical OGP project file I work with makes the application consume over 1GB of RAM (yes, I have complex files). I don't even think the iPad would be able to open it, let alone allow me to display and manipulate it.

OmniOutliner? Focus? Sure, I see that. It makes sense, and the applications are both 'simple' in terms of what they do, but OGP is a totally different beast.

Speaking of, when is it going to get some love? Some of us have work to do.

I grow to love Omni more and more.  Thank you for having some vision while so much of the tech world has been reactionary.  Excited and looking forward to buying Omni products on my iPad.

[...] Ken Case (from OmniGroup) We started working on iPad adaptations of OmniGraffle and OmniFocus as soon as the SDK was made available Wednesday afternoon [...] [...]

The first minute I saw the iPad, I thought, “How cool would it be to have my OO and OF on THAT!”. Well, it looks as though it is a reality. This cinches the question of whether or not to purchase an iPad. Thanks for the hard work folks, and thanks for the communication! Can we see some more of that? YAY!

Sign me up.

Yay!  I also immediately thought your products would be a perfect fit for the iPad while I was watching the iPad presentation. I would immediately use OmniFocus and OmniOutliner on the iPad.  Go for it.  We're right behind you.  Whatever you charge it will be worth it. People will pay for quality.  Don't worry about having all the features in the first version, and of course, it will be different than that MacOS version.  Don't let people's misunderstanding of the iPad mess up a beautiful redesign of your products.

YES! It's great to see that some of the software publishers get the idea!

The iPad is a revolutionary device smoothing the transition from the classic desktop computing to the new wave of intuitive ubiquitous computing.

Stay tuned for breathtaking experiences as more and more software developers give up on delivering more and more (useless) features (of which typical users only use 20%) and rather concentrate on streamlining the human computer interaction.

I can't wait for your OMNI products, I'll buy all of them for the iPad.

Thanks!

[...] Mac Rumors???The Omni Group??iPad???OmniGraffle??OmniOutliner??OmniPlan??OmniFocus??OmniGraphSketcher?????????????????????OmniGraffle?OmniFocus?iPad????????????????  via applelinkage.com [...]

[...] to subscribe to our RSS feed or newsletter. Thanks for visiting!Omni Group has said they’re bringing five apps to iPad and it seems like they have even rearranged parts of their delivery and [...]

[...] Meer info: Blog Omni Group [...]

I pad has MONO speaker ... oh my gosh what a rip off, even iphone has stereo speakers.  switch even those little speakers to mono and they sound horrible.

i ipad desparately needs the ability to view flash and java video which it does not, ... its really bad in that respect.

also the screen has huge black bars cutting off nearly 2 inches of the 10 inch display. 

i also hate the fact you still cant save even a small file to ipad, if you get an attachemnt there is essentially no way to save it and use it later, you have to go to your real computer.

wost thing is, the storage size is only same as iphone and touch!  so small and the cost nearly 900 bux with the 3g and the “larger” storage.

might as well get an acer.  screen is better its 100X more powerful and 1/2 the cost.

[...] la presentación del iPad, Omni Group, un conocido grupo de desarrolladores para Mac, confirmó en su blog que portaría cinco de sus aplicaciones de productividad al nuevo dispositivo de Apple, siendo una [...]

Wow, the idea of OmniGraffle for the iPad rocks my world. It is one of the very few go-to apps that is present all aspects of my personal world. YAY!

You guys make such great products, can't I just start sending you money now? Pre-Order? Your products make me so much money I have no problem sending you $100 to hire more people to get this done faster. Ok Ninjas, get working.

[...] OmniGroup Blog   Filed Under: Apple Tablet News, Applications. Tagged With: iPad, OmniGroup, Productivity Tools, [...]

[...] wrote, “Remember how Macintosh was intended to be the computer “for the rest of us?” [...]

[...] Endel av tankene mine forutsetter at tredjepartsutviklere faktisk utvikler programmer for formålet, men det er jeg ikke i tvil om at vil skje. Allerede ser vi at applikasjoner som var nesten umulig på iPhone blir tilgjengelig, best eksemplifisert med iWork som ble vist frem under lansering, og OmniGroup har allerede annonsert at de vil gi ut flere av sine mac-programmer på iPad, bl.a. OmniGraffle. [...]

[...] Omni Group to Bring Five Apps to iPad [...]

you confirm to be the best again, so far!

If there's anything I can do to help let me know. Omnifocus was the first of two apps I thought about when iPad was released. The other being SketchbookPro Mobile. I'm going need some organizing to get my drawings done.

Thanks for the update.

[...] [via The Omni Mouth] [...]

[...] tool, ending with a plea to developers to make apps for just that purpose. Since that time, OmniGroup has announced their intention to fully support the iPad. Immediately, I could see myself ‘needing’ [...]

Awesome. Go go graffle!

Denmark

It's great to see you guys recognize what's really happening in computing.  No one else seems to :-)  One vote for prioritizing OmniOutliner on the iPad.

[...] a blog post on Friday, The Omni Group, a major developer of productivity applications for the Mac, announced [...]

All I can say is: OMG OMG OMG!!!  I will probably be the first in line for an iPad now, since I was never able to afford an Air.  Thank you SO MUCH!!!

[...] zijn op de iPad ontzettend eenvoudig. Zo eenvoudig dat iedereen ze kan begrijpen – zoals OmniGroup het zegt: “Of je nu 2 of 92 bent”.  Daarnaast is de iPad als tablet veel toegankelijker [...]

Great news! This one announcement is enough to tip my thinking in favor of buying the iPad.

Your announcement has pushed me over the edge on an iPad purchase. I have used and loved OmniGraffle and OmniOutliner for years. They will be glorious on the iPad.

iPad + OmniOutliner = All I'll need, ever. This is really great news!

Omni Outline MUST support quick easy ways to enter mathematical & scientific formulas. 

This has been what has killed Laptops in the college class rooms.  Also support for simple stick figure molecules for chemistry classes is a near must.

OmniOutliner needs the ability to display the Notes Pane on the RIGHT SIDE of the outline. 

Having the notes pane on the bottom is good, but not nearly as useful as having it on the RIGHT SIDE, as done with Mori, Devon and many other tools.  Please enable this for the MacOSx and iPad versions.  Thanks for GREAT products!  TomR

This is awesome news. I'm excited to see what you guys come up with. I will certainly be buying at least a couple of these apps.

[...] Ken Case (from OmniGroup)  We started working on iPad adaptations of OmniGraffle and OmniFocus as soon as the SDK was made available Wednesday afternoon [...] [...]

Suggestion for iPad version of OmniOutliner:

Include audio recording in the app similar to Pear Note.

I use OmniOutliner to take notes in class while running Pear Note to capture the lecture. Since iPad does not multitask, this presents a problem. Building in audio recording would be a great addition to functionality and allow me to use OmniOutliner on the iPad in class.

Thanks.

[...] Group announced iPad versions of OmniGraffle, OmniOutliner, OmniPlan, OmniFocus, and OmniGraphSketcher. Development [...]

I have been really overly satisfied with all your products so far. So I really wish you guys dominate the Drag&Drop diagramming market for the iphone :)

OmniGraffle on iPad will be Nirvana! Please include Unicode character pickers. Unicode has lots of interesting characters I always use in my Graffles… I don't know if iPad has Edit → Special characters.

Ohhhhh - Have spent days going back and forward on getting an iPad or not. Omni apps on iPad mean it looks like the bank account is going to definitely get hammered. Your awesome software is going to be part of what makes iPad a 'must have' for me.

I note this with interest, as the iPad's caught the attention of the folks in the office (once purely a Windows house, until I arrived.. since then, there've been MacBook Pros, iPhones, iPod touches, and more =:) - but.. no mention of OmniWeb? Still my browser in OS X, and I'd like to see it on the iPad as well. Especially if it fixed a few of those minor, persistent bugs, like respecting the number of times an image may animate, but that's me being terminally picky. ^_^;

Can I urge you to get the iPad OmniOutliner out of the door as soon after the get-go as possible. I agree with earlier posts that the iPad is absolutely perfect for outlining. Be the first and best outliner for iPad!

I'd just like to voice my support for adding these productivity tools to the ipad. I think many don't realize the benefits of this mobile platform device and once some excellent software applications are available to showcase it's capabilities many might have a change of heart.

[...] http://blog.omnigroup.com/2010/01/29/ipad-or-bust/ [...]

[...] OmniGroup hat die Arbeit erst vor anderthalb Wochen aufgenommen, aber schon erste Ergebnisse erzielt, wie die Screenshots [...]

Omni SW on iPad may make it a must-have…then I only need SAS and SPSS and my grad school rationalization would be complete!

[...] iPad or burst (OmniGroup) [...]

[...] m? napadlo, jak skv?le by se na tom d?laly wireframy a ejhle, OmniGroup ohlásili, že hodlají pro iPad upravit všechny svoje [...]

[...] is the OmniGroup, the makers of OmniFocus and other productivity applications. They stated on their company blog that they are working hard to port their apps over to the [...]

[...] Allerede et par døgn efter afsløringen af iPad stod firmaet frem og fortalte at de havde lavet om på deres planer for det næste halve års tid. Anerkendelsen af iPad som en gamechanger havde fået dem til med det [...]

Who shares their plans and trusts that we can hadle them properly. I really appreciate and congratulate this business decision, which is rare to see, specially in the Apple camp.

[...] is the OmniGroup, the makers of OmniFocus and other productivity applications. They stated on their company blog that they are working hard to port their apps over to the [...]

Hi,

That's what I call a commitment :)

Anyway, it's been three weeks and I've been thinking about how the new plan is working. Any updates for us - mere users?

Take care.

Well, I guess I'd better not buy Omnigraffle ATM, should I? I was going to, but in light of this information, holding off would perhaps be best. Thanks for the heads-up regarding the impending updates to the software.

Here’s hoping that all the OmniApps prove that the iPad is the computer and not the peripheral device that all we hope it will be. The only reason I never bought an iPhone was the fact I use a Dell at work and to benefit from many of the iPhone apps, you have to sync your phone (as a peripheral device) to your Mac to manage the content. The iPad on the other hand has the potential to be a computer in its own right and should not need to be constantly synced to anything to be of use. The reality may be somewhat different, however the design of the apps will have a huge impact on this; if you guys can make the iPad Omni apps fully featured enough, I’ll be able to carry my iPad with me like the FiloFax/notepad/work-bible its meant to be. Here’s hoping…