Hi,
I am doing the 21-day free trial and am VERY impressed with the software. I have a question on your Support messageboard, about trying to run the program on a Windows 95 operating system. Anyone with ideas on that, please feel free to make a reply to that post.
I understand that there are "plans" for a Mac version, but that EarMaster does not want to give a "deadline" for the Mac release. Having worked at a software company, I can understand the unwillingness to give deadlines for 2 reasons:
1) Software development is a tricky business, and you must always expect the unexpected. And it is better to delay a release, rather than release something that has serious flaws, and ruins the firm's reputation (unless you are Microsoft, in which case you have your first clients act as your Quality Testers! But enough bashing Microsoft...javascript:emoticon(':-P')). So it is hard to give any time estimates, until you are close to completion, say in beta-testing. It is an unpredictable business!
2) Customers can be irrational, and even if the company says "this is just an initial guess, MANY things could affect the release date" the customers can become very angry and unreasonable, and put more and more pressure on the company to "meet the deadline" when really the company never set a firm deadline, just shared its early time estimates. So the company is actually WORSE if it tries to "help the customer" and give a rough time estimate, than if it just says "sorry, we have no estimate, we will let you know when we do." It is easier to manage customers by disappointing them NOW, rather than letting expectations get too high.
Well I can't solve issue #1 (software development will ALWAYS have its surprises, and nothing will ever go as smoothly as hoped). But for issue #2, maybe you can give a very ROUGH estimate, with a large INTERVAL of time, rather than a specific date (which is impossible to give anyway).
For example, we are about to start 2008. Divide the year into 3 parts, early (January-April), middle (May-August), late (September-December).
Would someone at EarMaster be comfortable with a VAGUE estimate, such as: Late 2008 to Middle 2008, for the Mac release?
At the least, I am sure you know where you are in the process of the Mac release (still gathering feedback, started programming, etc.).
Can someone at Earmaster at least give an "EARLIEST" time estimate? Such as saying, "the Mac release will be NO EARLIER than Late 2008, as we are AT LEAST a year away from release, and perhaps much longer"
I am sure you have gotten this question before, and I don't want you to set expectations you can't meet, but am hoping you can give some VAGUE answers, that will still be of use to people like myself.
Rough, preliminary estimates for Mac version of Earmaster 5?
Moderator: Quentin
You are completely right. It is very difficult to say anything certain about a release date. We know a lot of you are waiting for the Mac version of EarMaster, and we want to finish it as soon as possible...
We EXPECT
it to be released in autumn 2008 - maybe earlier, maybe later, but nothing is certain until it is there. We will however make the beta version available for download a couple of months before the final release. Then you know it is almost there 
Best regards,
Hans Jakobsen
EarMaster
We EXPECT
it to be released in autumn 2008 - maybe earlier, maybe later, but nothing is certain until it is there. We will however make the beta version available for download a couple of months before the final release. Then you know it is almost there Best regards,
Hans Jakobsen
EarMaster
Thank you for the very rough estimate, that helps my decision.
If the Mac version was expected in another 3 months, I would just wait for that. And if the Mac version would not be for another 2-3 years, then I might consider upgrading to a better PC, but the setup I have now should get me through 2008. So this helps me to make the decision to buy the software now, but to hold off on any hardware upgrades.
In addition to people like myself, I am sure you will get a lot more interest from music schools and their students, as right now they ignore all Windows/PC software. SO the Mac version could be very popular--and once you can get some large music schools to use it, their students will recommend it to others as well.
If the Mac version was expected in another 3 months, I would just wait for that. And if the Mac version would not be for another 2-3 years, then I might consider upgrading to a better PC, but the setup I have now should get me through 2008. So this helps me to make the decision to buy the software now, but to hold off on any hardware upgrades.
In addition to people like myself, I am sure you will get a lot more interest from music schools and their students, as right now they ignore all Windows/PC software. SO the Mac version could be very popular--and once you can get some large music schools to use it, their students will recommend it to others as well.
