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OmniGraphSketcher, OmniGraffle for iPad now available

by Linda Sharps on April 2, 2010

You know, you always think the countdown to a product launch is going to be exciting, but you forget about the part where it's actually just, you know, just kind of INSANE. Especially when the products in question are tied to a brand new hardware device. 

We are both thrilled and relieved to finally let you know that our first iPad apps, OmniGraffle and OmniGraphSketcher, are available on the App Store. If you're the sort who enjoys a tasty corporate press release, the officially-formatted mumbo jumbo is here (spoiler: it basically says OmniGraffle and OmniGraphSketcher for iPad are, wait for it, available on the App Store).

You can also read up on some of the reasons why we chose to develop for the iPad and how we went about doing so, check out the Macworld coverage on the new apps, and enjoy this Mashable list of their top 10 iPad apps they can't wait to use (#5, holla!).

We've also put together a little Q&A, for some questions we've legitimately been asked and some stuff we, ah, totally made up for the purpose of fleshing out this blog post. Ahem.

Can I download a trial of these apps?

Unfortunately, the App Store does not yet provide that option. 

So how am I supposed to figure out if I want them or not? 

Check out our website, where we've got overviews of both products as well as introductory videos. 

(Here's the OmniGraffle page and video, and the OmniGraphSketcher page and video.)

You could also download trial versions of the Mac apps if you'd like to get familiar with how they work in general. Obviously, it's going to be a different user experience on the iPad—one we hope you really enjoy!—but many of the features you can use on the Mac will be available on the iPad.

If you have any questions about how either app works, you're more than welcome to contact our wily Support Ninjas. 

I have the Mac version, can I get a discount on the iPad version?

We're generally happy to offer bundle pricing for products purchased through our own online store, but there's no way to do that when selling through the App Store. We've tried to make sure that each product is priced reasonably based on individual feature sets, and we hope you'll agree that both products become even more valuable when you use them together.

Can I open my existing OmniGraffle/OmniGraphSketcher documents on OmniGraffle/OmniGraphSketcher for iPad?

Yes! Currently the easiest way to transfer the documents created on the desktop to your iPad is via email.

I notice that OmniGraffle for iPad costs $50 and I think that's too much.

Well . . . that's not really a question, but to give you some background on our pricing decision, we followed a similar model to what Apple used for iWork, where there's a $79 suite on the desktop, and the iPad versions of the apps making up the suite now cost $30. OmniGraffle for iPad sells for half of what OmniGraffle for Mac costs.

Given the choice between two editions on the Mac, Standard for $99 and Pro for $199, twice as many of our customers choose Pro for $199.  (And before you think that's overpriced, if you wanted to buy a similar app for Windows you'd be looking at Visio--which retails at $259 for Standard and $559 for Pro.) $50 may be too much to spend on entertainment (although many console games cost more), but we don't intend OmniGraffle as a casual purchase: OmniGraffle for iPad is designed as a professional productivity tool, one which will make you more productive and will save you time and money every week.

We feel confident you will be happy with the depth of the feature set, pleasantly surprised by some brand-new options only available on the iPad, and overall find OmniGraffle for iPad to be a good value. As always, we welcome your feedback, so feel free to talk to us about any concerns you have!

Do I have to have an iPad to use these new apps?

It depends on how vivid of an imagination you have.

I'm sold! Where do I buy this stuff?

The App Store, natch. Here's the direct iTunes link for OmniGraffle, and for OmniGraphSketcher. We really hope you enjoy them. Happy iPadding!

Comments

So when will see OmniOutliner and OmniFocus?

Steven Sokulski

04.02.10 8:03 PM

Is the feature set of OmniGraffle for iPad be more along the lines of the Pro or regular version for the Mac?

CaseyH

04.02.10 11:07 PM

One of the main features of the Pro version is that it exports to Visio format.  Does the 1/4 priced iPad version also create Visio formatted documents?

If not, then the portable business sketching model becomes $250 + iPad + Mac.  My reality is that sketches eventually have to make their way back into my PC work environment and thus into Visio.  Not being able to get back to Visio means that the sketches I draw on my iPad still have to be translated by hand - just like my napkin drawings.

The port looks great though.  Good work.

Brandon Lewis

04.03.10 8:52 AM

Brandon, for the time being, OmniGraffle for iPad doesn’t have support for importing or exporting Visio files at all. Due to the time constraints, it simply didn’t make the cut for the initial launch.

We do want to add the ability to import Visio documents at the very least. We have a feature request for this in the tracking database - email omnigraffle-ipad [AT] omnigroup [DOT] com, and the support ninjas can vote that request up on your behalf

Support for exporting to the Visio format is going to be contingent on how efficiently we can import Visio files, but if we can make it work, we’d like to get it in there.

Brian

04.03.10 2:49 PM

The inability to offer bundle or upgrade discounts through the app store is perfectly fair for these apps, but I sincerely hope that OmniFocus—which is already a hefty quarter-price app on iPhone—is offered as a universal app. Requiring everyone who has already laid out $80 for OmniFocus + $20 for OmniFocus/iPhone to drop another $20-30 on the iPad edition would be cruel.

jrk

04.04.10 6:19 AM

Very happy with omnigraffle for iPad. This will probably be one of my ipads main usage. Can’t wait for omni focus. Like many have said, I do hope there is a discounted or free upgrade for iPhone omnifocus users.

Andres

04.04.10 6:48 AM

$50!!!!!!

Take a look at Bento or the iWork apps on the iPad for the correct pricing models.

People have no interest in any $50 applications.  That’s simply too much.

Take note of what happened to Wolfram Alpha, which was launched for $50 and is now $2.  Better to capitulate and offer Omni apps at a “special” rate of $5 now that you have strutted out your stuff and “established” how valuable your stuff is.

David Taylor

04.05.10 12:34 PM

I don’t mind the price, but I am very disappointed with the app’s performance. It is very laggy, to the point of making it unusable for the quick, rough diagraming I bought it for. The UI is also less than ideal—far too many routine tasks involve holding down a tap, which slows things down even more. You guys usually make great products, and I’m hoping this is just a glitch from developing without an iPad. Please, please work on an update. $50 is a lot to pay for an app I can’t really use.

John

04.05.10 5:01 PM

Love your work, I use omni focus every day. Bought an iPad and had planned to buy your other products for it, but at $50 that’s just silly.

2 lost sales, at $9.99 each ( my fair price), you have just not sold $20 of apps and the possible other sales from demonstrating the apps to other people. 

It’s still time to reconsider.

Paulo

04.05.10 6:53 PM

I wanted to buy an iPad mostly to run OmniGraffle and OmniOutliner on the go. But with this pricing model, I might just forgo the iPad. Many who want to run these apps on the iPad already had to fork out much for the desktop version. And it’s also steep considering there’s no trial or refund option. @ $19.95-$24.95 it would have been more acceptable. I know, Omni apps are great professional tools for the creative. And pricing should reflect that. But there’s also a chance of going too far with this thinking, and causing a lot of missed opportunity to get people not only to love the software, but also the company.

Tim

04.06.10 2:03 AM
Team Member

I’ve posted this to our OmniGraffle forums and mailing list, but I think it probably bears repeating here:

OmniGraffle for iPad isn’t designed as a companion to the Mac app: it’s designed as a complete standalone app, with support for multiple canvases, shared layers (only available in the Pro app on Mac), tables (also Pro-only on Mac), smart guides, automatic layout, text formatting, variable substitutions, and so on.

In fact, in some respects OmniGraffle for iPad is a dramatic improvement over the Mac app: the touch interface makes it much easier to create freehand sketches, and if you’ve ever tried to use OmniGraffle heavily on a MacBook I think you’ll agree that the iPad app provides a much better mobile experience. (Given the choice between bringing OmniGraffle for iPad or MacBook to a meeting, I’d choose OmniGraffle for iPad.)

At half the price of the Mac app, OmniGraffle for iPad is already significantly less expensive than its Mac editions—so much less expensive that I worry about the degree to which it might cannibalize our Mac sales.

…

That said, you shouldn’t have to spend $50 on faith, and we’re not asking you to do so.

Building an app worth $50 was simply our first challenge. (And while I think our design, engineering, and QA teams have done a great job so far, we’ve only reached our first 1.0 milestone: we’re not done yet!)

Having built that app, it’s now our responsibility to demonstrate to your satisfaction that it’s worth $50 of your money. We’ve started this process by posting screenshots and intro videos, but we have a lot more work to do on that front: we’ll be publishing more videos and other information on our own web site, of course, but it would also help to have trusted third-party reviews, demo copies in retail stores, demo copies available for in-person demonstrations at user groups, and so on.

So, no, please don’t cross your fingers and spend your $50 completely on faith. Tell us what you need to be able to make an informed decision, and we’ll do our best to help you reach one. (And if your informed decision is not to purchase the app, we’ll understand!)

…

Finally, a big thank you to our customers:  OmniGraffle for iPad sold over 1,000 copies during iPad’s opening weekend!

Ken Case

04.06.10 6:14 AM

The $50 price tag seems plenty reasonable to me, but the inability to export to visio makes it useless to me unfortunately.

Hopefully you can get that functionality in!

Seth

04.07.10 8:38 AM

> We’re generally happy to offer bundle pricing for products purchased through our own online store, but there’s no way to do that when selling through the App Store.

There actually is a way to do discounts for existing users through in-app purchasing (and you could add an email or serial number verification step to qualify the discount), but it would require some re-thinking of how the app is sold.

For an example, spend $3 for the AirShare app, and then check out their upgrade from inside the app, where you’ll find it for $3 less than buying the pro version directly from the app store. It’s not a drop-in solution, but it is possible.

Todd Sieling

04.07.10 8:39 AM

I had to wait until Monday for a friend to bring me two iPads from the US and OmniGraffle was among the first apps purchased. The app works just fine and it does not feel slow, the interface does of course have a few limitations - even a 9.7” screen can’t do everything that can be done on a 30” display (like having all drawers, inspectors and stencils open and still room for a full page document). I think the price is about OK, but I would like to see some improvements: Visio export (don’t need import), more stencils (and means to move own stencils from the desktop app to the iPad), presentation mode through the VGA adapter. But still: for a version 1 that was developed without access to an actual iPad, it is pretty impressive.

Dreyfus

04.07.10 3:30 PM

You sold a thousand already?  Congratulations. I would have thought more people would have been like me.  I own a ton of Omni and love you guys, but you have priced me out of even wanting an iPad, since your apps were the most interesting thing I wanted to do with an iPad.

How many times will I have to pay for the same programs I wonder… then I realize that these versions, while nice, were essentially rushed to make the debut.  I have no doubt that I will have to pay again for a new greatly more capable version in no time.

Of course, I’ll need a second generation iPad to run it too, and then I’ll have to upgrade to a new more expensive iPhone version, and pay for an upgrade for my mac version so that I can better share, and so on and so on until the poor turnip can bleed no more.

It is a matter of time before you will be down to just a hardcore user group and someone else will step up to reach the mass consumer market.

Bummer, I really wanted to play with your toys too.

thesagefool

04.09.10 12:14 AM

People, $49 is REALLY not that much at all for something as good as OG for the Ipad. This thing is amazing and WELL worth it. Look, if you just paid 499 for quality hardware you can _easily_ pay 49 for quality software. Omnigroup is not exactly Microsoft—they are a small co which makes amazing software and needs to eat.

Worthit

04.09.10 2:26 AM

I’m a loyal OmniGroup fan, and I just shelled out $50 to get omnigraffle on my iPad so I am deeply disappointed by performance issues. In freehand drawing mode the app is not responsive: drawing, pinching, zooming, panning, screech to a stuttering halt. Rendering the app useless to me until, hopefully, you work out these issues.

I have a question too. How do I bring selected objects forward or send them backward?

- Expecting more, soon. Please.

David

04.22.10 2:58 PM
Team Member

David, we’re terribly sorry that you’re experiencing performance issues — Since we now have actual devices to test on, we’re making improving performance and speed our number one issue, and hope to have an update submitted to the App Store for approval very soon.

As to moving objects forwards and backwards, you can do so in the Object List section of the Contents popover, when in Edit Mode there you can drag objects around in the list or to other layers. (we’ll be adding “Bring to Front” and “Send to Back” contextual menu items for selected objects in the next update as well)

Joel

04.22.10 5:11 PM

You guys have been missing a lot more sales than you could have had the last few years.  I have been waiting for some real import/export without needing to save first in XML as I have hundreds of visio flowchart I don’t intend to save to xml.  Visio is really the biggest reason I need to lug a hated windows machine around with me on business trips. 

So - here is another potential customer who would find that $50 would be ok to spend if the product is usable in the corporate world. Unfortunately at this point the products value to me would only make sense if it was a free application because it has nowhere to fit in my corporate life where flowcharts are used by everyone in my organization.

Joseph

05.01.10 4:57 PM
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