Results tagged “Mac Software” from AppleHound
I read an interesting Google Groups post today that got me thinking about software release expectations. The post is in the Coda group and is titled . This is a fairly common inquiry in many software support forums. There are several reasons why I think end-users pose this question to software creators.
In the case of purchased software there may be is a sense of entitlement. Money has changed hands and the purchaser feels as though they should have more say in the development process and schedule. The customer may also have a desire to validate their purchase decision.
Response from Cabel Sasser, Panic Inc. to a statement that 5 months is a very long time for a shareware application to go without an update:
"You know, this is an interesting point.
A company like Adobe, which has hundreds of engineers working on Photoshop, releases ONE version every two or three years, and maybe a single bug fix release in the interim. For the most part, we're all cool with that, myself included! :)
But a shareware company that has, say, one or two people working on a product, is somehow expected to do releases every few months -- even free major ones -- or people start getting itchy.
I experience this too -- it's pretty interesting. :)
Anyway, we're all working as hard as we can, and the stuff we're adding is not easy, or quick, to do. For the record, at the risk of breaking some hearts, we do not have a release scheduled for the Apple Design Awards. Naturally, we'll let you guys know the second we have something to talk about. :)"
As a software developer I have a fair amount of experience dealing with end-user expectations. It always amazes me when users expect Apple, Adobe, Google or Microsoft quality and quantity from a small team of developers.
The main difference here is that the end-user can more easily influence the independent developer than the giant corporation. Adobe has created a mature image editing application in Photoshop, and they know it. Pixelmator on the other hand doesn't have the luxury of market dominance. They are the underdog who still has something to prove in their pursuit to compete with the big boys. Many customers know this and take every opportunity to attempt to get Photoshop features at a Pixelmator price.
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