News on Apollo's development
After six months of being public (and six months of frenetic development, may I say), I think it's about time to talk about Apollo, its development, and how it's coming along.
It's very strange for me to think about the way Apollo was six months ago: we have been adding countless important features since we went live (cases & deals, group emails, etc.), and continue developing more and more important parts today. We were never secretive about our roadmap: we were quite happy to talk about our priorities, and what we were working on.Important features such as iCal export and importing contacts are very much needed by many users, and have huge priority. They are also marked internally "building blocks": they are important, and they require large amounts of time to develop.
But the big features are only half the story, in any piece of software. The other side of the story is in the countless, small improvements that we feel we need to include into Apollo in the mid-long term. All 215 of them. They are all in the "oh yes, this would be really good" category, and their implementation is not going to change the experience of most users, but they are still part of the "development equation".
The goal for 2011 is to implement at least a sizeable chunk of those smaller features, as well as completing the building blocks. And, obviously, squash the few bugs that pop up along the way. This is a pretty impressive undertaking, and it will not be without challenges. However, you can imagine that we are not the kind of team that would ever give up a good challenge.
In order to keep you up to date in terms of development, we will publish a changelog in Apollo's site (I will add a link here when it's ready) and will be announcing whenever a foundation block is done.
Software is never finished -- it's only perfected, day after day, bug after bug. It's an honour to work on a piece of software that gets so many fantastic genuine comments, and that does so much, so well -- and this is only the beginning.
6 comments so far
Justin Romack
Thu, 12/23/2010 - 12:24
Tony and the Apollo staff,
I'm so gracious for the intensity that you work to provide users with the best quality product possible - even if it is still under development. You're constant attention to detail and user-centric mindset is what will set you apart from other platforms. I'm excited to see what's on the horizon for the Apollo system, and look forward to constantly providing insight from a user perspective into the product you are designing.
Thank you for all that you do, and keep plugging away - full speed ahead!
Eric
Fri, 01/21/2011 - 18:50
Wow! Just found your app (via an alternativeto.net search on basecamp I might add)... It is SOOO refreshing to see a development team in this space that is actually OPEN with its (obviously) valued customers!
I agree with Justin above... that's the second thing I noticed while watching the screencasts (first was the super CLEAN UI)... the "user-centric mindset" that went into the design and UI. Everything seems like you purposefully thought "ok, now how would the user ACTUALLY use this," then went about to build the interface to match.
Anyway, time to give it a try!
Oh, and one more thing... please think "different" when it comes to your pricing structure. I personally can't stand what has become the norm... charging based on limitations on projects or users. It really feels restricting. There's another startup project management app who I think got the pricing structure right; you can email me for a link if you'd like. Basically unlimited everything, starting at a reasonable price, and the higher plans have more storage space. Anyway, just my two cents.
I know I've personally scaled down on projects to be able to add new ones in, let's just say, "that other" project manager.
Keep up the great work!
E
Tony Mobily
Fri, 01/21/2011 - 19:54
Just emailed you! :D
Eric
Fri, 01/21/2011 - 18:52
Oh, almost forgot! Here's a great roadmap you might take note of from the guys over at Cultured Code:
http://culturedcode.com/status/
See ya!
Tony
Wed, 02/09/2011 - 08:32
Do you have any idea when the import feature will be added?
applicomhq
Wed, 02/09/2011 - 16:29
Very, very, _very_ shortly!