Textpander -> TextExpander
Today, we released TextExpander 1.3, our first acquired product. A little background on the how/why:
A few months ago, I tried to donate US $30 to Peter Maurer, the author of Textpander and a medical student in Germany. I used his Textpander software every day to help answer customer support inquiries, to type URLs, and to sign my E-mails. I didn’t get a reply from Peter, so after some time I mailed his colleague to ask if he was okay. He was fine, had just waited to reply until he resolved the problem with PayPal, and so I made my donation. Then I asked Peter if he might consider selling us Textpander. Peter was amenable, so we reached an agreement, and the SmileOnMyMac team got to work on TextExpander 1.3.
We develop, market, and support software for a living, so we have the resources and the drive to take TextExpander forward. We adopted Peter’s unshipped improvements. We then added our own improvements, in particular the ability to create both plain and rich text snippets from the current selection via a System Service and to invoke that service from the TextExpander menu. We added an Italian version and we localized the help for the other non-English versions.
We have future plans for making TextExpander even more useful, and we’re working hard to spread the word. And we provide technical support . To date, we have answered all inquiries for all our products in under 24 hours, many much faster than that–and we know that people really appreciate that.
TextExpander, like all SmileOnMyMac products, is available as a free fully-functional demo download. For the first 30 days after installation, you’ll get a reminder of the hours that you’ve saved using TextExpander each time you save another hour. We think that, considering the value of one hour of your time, TextExpander is quite a bargain at US $29.95. If you continue to use TextExpander beyond 30 days, TextExpander will remind you to purchase more frequently, but still unobtrusively.
Some folks have complained that TextExpander is no longer free. The fact is, Textpander never was free. It was released as donationware. If you found the application useful, you were asked to donate money to Peter via PayPal. Less than 250 people ever made a donation. We’ll probably see half that number in purchases today, and we thank each and every one of you, as registered users give us the resources and motivation to improve TextExpander.
I hope you’ll download TextExpander and give it a try:
http://www.smileonmymac.com/textexpander/download.html
If there are features you’d like to see, mail us:
We welcome comments from users (new, existing and potential) and we will continue to do our best every day to earn your custom.
Greg Scown
Co-Founder
SmileOnMyMac
May 24th, 2006 at 11:39 am
The donationware discussion has generated some interesting blog posts out there. Here’s a couple we like:
Expat Leo’s Blogroll - a rant:
http://expat-leo.blogspot.com/2006/05/geek-textpander-goes-shareware-and.html
Hawk Wings, with a nod to Marie Antoinette:
http://www.hawkwings.net/2006/05/25/developers-let-them-eat-cake/
(We do love cake. But we wouldn’t last long on an all-cake diet.)
Peter Maurer puts in his 2 pfennigs:
http://www.petermaurer.de/nasi.php?section=log&id=25
(OK, he probably has eurocents now, but pfennig is a fun word I never get to use.)
June 4th, 2006 at 12:08 pm
“Ware Labels Perplexing” by Glenn Fleishman, Seattle Times
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2003036506_ptmacc03.html
The article looks at the various “wares” in the software marketplace (free-, donation-, share-, etc.) and how they’ve evolved with the growth of the internet. It closes with:
“Incidentally, TextExpander is also a quite useful piece of software; this flap introduced it to me, and it’s now part of my recommended set of utilities to make my use of Mac OS X more efficient.”
July 9th, 2006 at 3:43 pm
Given that the only two comments posted to this blog entry are from Smile On My Mac members, I tend to think this will be moderated and will not be posted, but I have to say this: charging $30 for Textpander is the single most insane pricing move I’ve yet to see on the part of a company. Peter Mauer is an amazing author, but this will singlehandedly murder demand for the product. If this does get posted, I refer users to discussions at MacUpdate regarding the product. My prediction: TextPander, in SOMM’s hands, will either be hastily downgraded in price in a few months, or will pretty much die a swift death. By the way, I would have probably paid $10 for this — begrudgingly to you guys if you lower the price, or in a swift heartbeat to Peter.
July 26th, 2006 at 2:28 pm
I think what most people are realizing is many of these applications being made by young web developers are nothing more than reinventing what already in most cases exists in the mac. Sure they add some eye candy and fizz to make it look pretty but in the end you could have done with out it.
There’s nothing more useless then having to pay for something that may already exist in one form or another. In fact, this could be considered by many as scamming to make a buck.
How many mac software developers out there making cheap apps for the mac ? thousands every day it seems, just look at some of these apps its pathetic. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for great apps for the mac and there are some good ones, people should consider carefully if they really need these apps in most cases they can do with out. Oh and those free apps all that is is a a lure/hook to get you to completely turn over to it and make it fit into your mac until the day comes they add a $$ tag to it then you have no choice but to buy it. Yea I know how you developers work. again i’m not complaining just trying to give people some objective thoughts to consider.
Now I know what some of you developers are saying, that’s not true blah blah blah, not everyone on the net is stupid and most people know when applications are made for one reason to make $$$
I love how some developers will put a nice paragragh or two about donation and how they have to feed their families and blah blah the only difference between pan handling (beggin) on the street and this is that one looks more pretty in written text.
In conclusion, I just want to say its ok to want stuff to make things easier on the mac but don’t be fooled by these app makers they are out to make some $$$$ and they don’t care about you or your family so why should you care about theirs, I know I don’t
September 5th, 2006 at 10:17 am
[...] I have to say, I just love TextExpander (formerly “Texpander”). Its functionality is not unique — users of, say, TextMate, TypeIt4Me, or Windows’ popular ActiveWords (Hi, Buzz), or for that matter, Vim, will recognize the similarities. But, brother, is it ever easy to setup, modify, and use. [...]
March 30th, 2007 at 1:15 am
Great article about how make software development business