About the Goplan iPhone app

Fred Oliveira on June 8, 2011, Comments (11)

People who’ve been with us for a while know that we’ve been working on an iPhone application for Goplan. They also know it never launched - a cause for some dispair and disappointment, both for our users as well as ourselves. We thought we would explain why the app isn’t out yet and what we’re doing instead.

We saw an iPhone application as a way to access Goplan when mobile - something we’d appreciate ourselves, and that we know users would like to have too. However, in recent weeks we noticed how long we were spending on creating an OS-specific application for the iPhone (for a small number of our users) and not dedicating to the main product. After pondering on this for a while, we came to the conclusion that we’d better serve our users by focusing our efforts on our main web application’s features and experience.

So it is with a bit of sadness that we announce that we dropped our plans for an iPhone specific version of Goplan, at least for the near future. We want to keep improving the main application for everyone, and by focusing on it we’ll better serve all our users. We’ll also start to think about an HTML-based version of Goplan ready for mobile devices that people on iOS devices, Android and Blackberry can enjoy.

We know this decision is bound to disappoint quite a few of you - particularly those who’ve been waiting for it for a bit. But it is for a good cause. We want to nail the perfect project management experience online, and focusing on the main app is the best way to do it. Our API is available for developers who want to build app on top of Goplan. Our reframed focus on the main app experience will bring lots of great things and updates to Goplan (today we rolled out a few UI updates and the new post-commit hook support for developers). As always, we welcome your feedback regarding this announcement. We work on Goplan every day for you guys, so your opinion matters. Thanks!

Comments:

I think putting energy into on a solid HTML website is a better strategic focus since you’ve already got a base to work with. Even if you got an iPhone app out, would it look good on the iPad? And then what about Android? I have both an Android phone and an Android tablet. Thinking of getting a Windows 7 Phone in the fall! But at least I’ll always have a webkit browser no matter what!

There’s lots that can be done with adaptive CSS and the local storage feature of HTML5 for caching. Do it!

I registered my Goplan today and followed twitter. And what I see few hours now. You droping support for device from what I writing comment now. And I dont’t see a lot of comments from disapointed users. So I’m not sure that I come to right ecosystem. Web interface is terrible slow, no proper mobile device support, think I will abandon my test and go to find other solution for my team and projects.

Mikhail: we’re definitely not dropping support for the iPhone or iPad. We’re saying we’re not going to build an iPhone-specific application but that will instead start thinking about designing a mobile-version of Goplan that works on any mobile device.

Regarding the web interface: where are you in the world? Based on our tests, the app is actually super speedy unless you’re in a place with a bad internet connection (which, lets face it, is to be expected). Shoot us an email and lets work together to see what we can do about your speed accessing the service.

Having tried a few iPhone clients for competing project management solutions, I find myself using the web interface all the time. Cracking the UX on how a mobile client should behave while still maintaining the familiarity of the web interface but improving on it, is hard and very time-consuming work…

I think this is one of those times where no matter how sad the decision is, it is the best for everyone involved. Besides, I never felt you guys were excited about the iPhone client and that was eating up your motivation, even on the web side. Refocus now and… have fun! :)

Good luck guys! :)

iPhone apps are useless for Android/Blackberry/WinMobile/WebOS/etc users. Mobile browser compatibility adds value for everyone with a browser. This is absolutely the right move.

I agree with most other commenters. Give me a mobile HTML version and I’ll be more than happy. Whatever leaves you more time for main app and will work on more devices.

As much as I love the iphone, it makes business sense to develop for as many platforms as possible.

Xero have made a really app using HTML 5 etc.. http://blog.xero.com/2011/04/try-xero-touch-our-new-mobile-app/

I believe they use the sencha framework
http://www.sencha.com/

Would love to have an android app too!

We are developing apps for Android/Blackberry/WinMobile/WebOS/etc users visit us for more details - iphoneappsprogramming.com

I definitely support this decision. Please put as many efforts towards making a convenient mobile/tablet version of the site as soon as possible.

I find myself needing to manage projects on the go more and more, and while the HTML version of the site is fine, I cannot do things like drag and drop on an iPad or manage certain areas as quickly as need be.

The formatting can also be distracting.

I’m all for putting time where it is most needed, and hope to see a working or beta version soon. It’d make it 100% easier to convince team members to jump on board while increasing productivity for those on the go.

Thanks!

We are developing smartphone apps for android, iPhone, iPad and Blackberry platforms. Contact us for more details.

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