During the past few months, Prospects development essentially came to a halt while I determined how to best proceed with the product.   I did not see the increase in sales I was hoping for with the release of version 1.2, but I continued to develop updates that I hoped would start to drive some sales.   As I worked on 1.3, sales continued to decline and the marketplace began to shift with some interesting changes in the online personal finance space and personal finance applications in general.

I did not handle the situation well.   I neglected to answer the majority of support emails and did not respond to postings on the support forums.  This was a large, inexcusable error on my part.   I am sincerely sorry for the lack of support and communication.

After much thought and planning, I have decided to proceed with Prospects development.   I am very excited about the potential for the future!   With the new year will come some changes:

• Prospects will move to a Family Pack license only (no more Single Use license) priced at $25.  This will allow you to purchase one copy and run it on all your family’s machines.  If you already purchased a Single Use license, you can now use it as a Family Pack license.
• I will not be providing a road map for Prospects.  I will discuss features and upcoming releases and keep the community informed as best as I can, but I will not be discussing all features.  I will do my best to communicate progress and some features from each release via this blog and Twitter.
• I do not currently plan on releasing a Prospects 2.0 in 2010, but instead will continue to release incremental updates (1.3, 1.3.x, 1.4, etc). This means that everyone who has already purchased a license will continue to be able to upgrade to the new releases at no cost.

I am currently working on Prospects 1.3 and will post more details about it in the near future.  I know this post will not answer everyone’s questions, but hopefully it is a start.  Please feel free to post in the support forums or email me at the support email address if you have any questions.  Again, I would like to sincerely apologize for the lack of communication during the past few months.

Thanks – and happy new year!

Mike Rutt

After some additional consideration, I’ve also decided to enable comments again in the blog since the blog discusses things that are not discussed in the forums or other areas of the site.

Mike

As in the past, I am not quite ready to commit to a release date for Prospects 1.2.  I am nearing a point where I will feel comfortable posting a time frame, but I am not quite there yet.  Once the underlying file format for the 1.2 version is complete, I will be setting up a private beta program.  The format must be stable to allow the beta testers to work with the software without constantly losing their data.  While a private beta may not get beaten up as much as a public beta, I feel it will be allow me to better control the feedback and quickly resolve problems.  The private beta period will be short (perhaps two to three weeks tops) and will ensure the 1.2 changes are stable.  I will be setting up a page for anyone to sign-up as a private beta tester once it is ready.

I’m not happy with the slow progress of version 1.2 and for that I MUST apologize to all the existing users.  I cannot blame you for being upset at the delay and I fully understand your aggravation.  There are numerous reasons for the delay… but needless to say, I am happy with where the product is headed and think you all will be too when it is released.

The release of 1.2 will mark a major milestone for Prospects and position it for significant growth.  In addition to the release, the website will be getting some updates to make it more useful to Prospects users:

• a new look and feel with more information
• forums with a more simplified appearch (to match the look and feel of the website; the forums are not changing – just the appearance!)
• a better support site including:
  • forms for bug reporting and requesting new features
  • screencasts demonstrating how to perform basic tasks with Prospects, as well as tips for using the product effectively

In an effort to begin the march towards the 1.2 release, I am going to post more regularly on the blog.  I know I have said this before, but this time will be different because I am setting a posting goal of AT LEAST once per week.  I intend on posting some tidbits (with screenshots where possible) about the upcoming release in hopes that it will generate some feedback / discussion to ensure it’s on the right path.

Finally, there will be a 1.1.4 release coming out shortly to fix some of the bugs in 1.1.3 and to prepare for some of the changes coming in 1.2.  I am really hoping to get some feedback on existing bugs for the 1.1.4 release.  If you experience a crash – ANY CRASH AT ALL – with Prospects 1.1.3, please report it to support@motimotion.com and include what you were doing at the time of the crash and if possible, a copy of the crash information found in the Mac OS X Console application.  If you need assistance with getting this information, please let me know.

I know there are some issues with 1.1.3 out there and the more people that report them, the easier they will be to solve.

Thanks for your continued interest in the product – I’ll be posting my first 1.2 tidbit later in the week.

Thanks for reading…

Mike