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Comment by thiagocesar | Hacker News Reader

It’s an amazing product.

I cannot afford the price tag. I wonder how many more people would buy it if it was just a little bit cheaper.

Not nearly enough... that's the problem: the business models that produced products like that won't be around for much longer as the price gets closer and closer to 'free'. The economics of mobile are dismal for paid productivity software.

To be fair, what mobile app is as good at what it does as Omni* is at theirs? Or, to short-circuit exceptions proving a rule, what is the proportion, or furthermore, how many segments of the mobile market has apps as good?

Yes. It is unfortunate. I’ve bought a couple of their products and recommended them to others. However, the price means that people (if their employers aren’t paying for it) have to plan it, and most won’t spend that amount on software.

I assume that 30 years of research has taught them that they won't get double the customers at half of the price.

Way easier to get away with finding half of your existing customers that can pay double than to cut your prices by half and double your entire sales funnel.

Or at least this was the wisdom imparted on me by a long time sales manager for a large VAR.

Or segment your product so you can extract the most value out of your customers.

https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2004/12/15/camels-and-rubber-...

I know it's relative but I don't think their product is expensive since it's a one time fee. I think I paid $99 once but don't recall exactly. Especially if you intend to use it regularly. I think most updates you get for free. But maybe for major updates you need to pay extra. Not sure.

omnigraffle pro is $250.

I was saying the same thing earlier today. Most of their products are $100-200. I like OmniGraffle but I only need to make graphics a few times a year, and free alternatives like draw.io or even Keynote often suffice.

Yeah, I feel this. I strongly believe that the "App Store economy" has taught developers to underprice their work, and that $25, $50, even $100 isn't unreasonable. But Omni's stuff... it gets steep if you're a relatively casual user, especially if you want both Mac and iOS versions.

While it's possible I'm an outlier, I can't help but wonder if a different pricing structure -- say, $49.99 for most Mac programs, $19.99 for most iOS ones, and a (gasp) subscription of $39.99 per year for upgrading to the Pro version that covered both iOS and Mac versions of the app -- would actually make them more money in the long run.

Same boat with Omni + SketchUp. I would happily pay $100, for "metered credits" to an online service. There's a big difference between using SketchUp for 40 hours total v. 40 hours a week.

That is the issue. It is not that it isn't worth $250 for the Pro version if you use it everyday, but it isn't worth it if you only use it twice a year.

I don't really know Omni or their products, but I wonder from reading some comments here that while the bottom end of their market has been eaten by cheaper/free alternatives, the pro market that will happily pay $250 for a great tool has been eaten by things like Figma with the online collaboration that has become essential for professionals.

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