[yurkennis]

For the record, as many of you likely read this: Gartner has just released a report on smartphone sales, comparing 2010-Q1 to 2009-Q1.

Android became #4 platform in the list (with now 9.6%) while WinMo went down to #5 with 6.8%.

Top three platforms are the same:
#1: Symbian: 44.3% (was 48.8%)
#2: Blackberry: 19.4% (was 20.6%)
#3: iPhone OS: 15.4% (was 10.5%)

So here is my another vote for Android ;-)

[yurkennis]

AlfRamos, on 14 April 2010 - 02:55 PM, said:

In a perfect world, a developer would either make or outsource development of a software to every OS otu there where consumers demanded it. This is why you see Microsoft office on Macs, etc. I believe the solution is pretty simple, setup a preorder button for the top 3-5 feasible choices with a date and description of potential limitations and have people preorder with credit cards as you would a unrealeased dvd/book on Amazon. The highest preorder take it, if resources are limited to one platform. No one goes back to using Lotus 123 if they have moved on to Excel.

I like this idea, and would even suggest to evolve it further.

Just allow your users to pay whatever amount they feel reasonable for having Bonsai on the platform of their choice. I'm sure many of us are ready upfront a more significant amount than a regular license fee ($100 for me is absolutely fine, for example). Setup preorder (i.e. convert our "wishes" into "payments done in advance"), and develop for the platform which gains more money. Setting a 1-year timeframe looks reasonable even for a beta quality release.

And if some of us make public the amount they paid, it will help others to decide that they can also spend more bucks then they initially considered.

What Natara thinks on this?

[johnbits]

yurkennis, on 19 May 2010 - 11:37 AM, said:

I like this idea, and would even suggest to evolve it further.

Just allow your users to pay whatever amount they feel reasonable for having Bonsai on the platform of their choice. I'm sure many of us are ready upfront a more significant amount than a regular license fee ($100 for me is absolutely fine, for example). Setup preorder (i.e. convert our "wishes" into "payments done in advance"), and develop for the platform which gains more money. Setting a 1-year timeframe looks reasonable even for a beta quality release.

And if some of us make public the amount they paid, it will help others to decide that they can also spend more bucks then they initially considered.

What Natara thinks on this?

[johnbits]

I would also support almost anything that would expand the platform-especially to the Android market. I still use a Treo 755p because I depend on Bonsai and Palm for both my desktop and handheld--DAILY. With HP purchase of Palm likely, I again delayed any decision to move to a Pre and work within the ability for legacy apps. As a consultant, I am really finding it hard to find products for basic productivity for clients, especially with desktop synch. There are some basic list managers, but nothing close to Bonsai. Although fourth on the previously posted list, I believe that Android is the fastest-growing of the smartphone platforms. It also seems more likely to move deeper into business content than the iPhone. The Windows OS on mobile is waning, and it seems like an open market for the company that understands that basic applications for business and productivity personal use need a solid future. My partner just lost her call log on her Droid (no obvious reason). There was no clear backup solution yet, only synching with Outlook and Google, each with limitations and with only part of her critical information.

Natara - HELP!

John - BITS

[Christozoid]

johnbits, on 24 May 2010 - 02:38 PM, said:

I would also support almost anything that would expand the platform-especially to the Android market. I still use a Treo 755p because I depend on Bonsai and Palm for both my desktop and handheld--DAILY. With HP purchase of Palm likely, I again delayed any decision to move to a Pre and work within the ability for legacy apps. As a consultant, I am really finding it hard to find products for basic productivity for clients, especially with desktop synch. There are some basic list managers, but nothing close to Bonsai. Although fourth on the previously posted list, I believe that Android is the fastest-growing of the smartphone platforms. It also seems more likely to move deeper into business content than the iPhone. The Windows OS on mobile is waning, and it seems like an open market for the company that understands that basic applications for business and productivity personal use need a solid future. My partner just lost her call log on her Droid (no obvious reason). There was no clear backup solution yet, only synching with Outlook and Google, each with limitations and with only part of her critical information.

Natara - HELP!

John - BITS

I've waited for a year; using Bonsai through Classic (retro-OS) on my Pre. Now I'm counting the remaining months of my Sprint contract to switch to a suitable Natara Bonsai replacement on a smart-phone. The only alternative seems to be CarbonFin on the iPhone. Any Bonsai users have tried that switch yet?

[yurkennis]

Christozoid, on 17 June 2010 - 06:48 PM, said:

The only alternative seems to be CarbonFin on the iPhone. Any Bonsai users have tried that switch yet?

I'm currently in search for a replacement.
WinMo Bonsai is not ready for prime time (see my separate post for details).

As my primary scenario with Bonsai is GTD implementation, Things seems the closest alternative on iPhone (although it has only MacOS desktop app, nothing for Win). I'm also playing with CarbonFin for a week now, but it lacks too much compared to Bonsai: categories/tags; filtering; start (or due) date.

I've found no serious alternative on Android so far (except for Astrid, which is way too different), but haven't spent much time to researching the rest on Android.

I will post a link to much more details on "how Things (and CarbonFin) feels for Bonsai user", if Natara won't object.

[mzirino]

Hi. I pretty much live on Bonsai, and I just got an iphone 4 - big problem...

As far as I can see, there are no similar hierarchical to-do lists for iphone, and probably none as nice as Bonsai. I think the iphone IU doesn't lend itself to that kind of hierarchical data, so I have a few suggestions on how to expand Bonsai for the next wave:

1. Build the next version using HTML5, so that there is a disconnected mode on mobile devices. You should be able to represent Bonsai data fully in HTML5. This should also work on all future mobile devices and browsers.
2. Also have a web-server version for PC's.
3. Sync with cloud.
3. The open xml format is very important for me as I need to connect my bonsai data with all kinds of other things...

Thanks,
Marco

[yurkennis]

mzirino, on 05 July 2010 - 03:17 PM, said:

2. Also have a web-server version for PC's.
3. Sync with cloud.

My 2 cents on this: syncing to cloud would kill Bonsai for 50% of my usage, as I have tons of enterprise proprietary data which I (and my employer) wouldn't like to share--even with Natara, with all my personal respect.

[johnbits]

I wrote Natara on 7/22/10 to request some response to the posts here pleading for some insight as to the future of Bonsai. I depend on the desktop product daily both for business and personal use. What I was asking for is for some idea of where they are going or considering for those of us who remain loyal. With the growing Android market, HP's purchase of Palm, and some of the platform independent approaches mentioned here combined with the total lack of any competitive product, it would seem prudent to provide some hope and information for the users and for those to whom they recommend software. It would also seem an open market for this product.

Natara staff - is there life ahead in your plans? Thank you for your much anticipated response.

[007]

Just switched from my treo to an iphone. I have been able to successfully upload a bonsai Outline to CarbonFin using the OPML template they provide and then have it show up on my iphone. It is just the bare outline text and structure, none of the great categories, dates of other functions that Bonsai provides.

A new option I am looking at is Lifebalance. They do have a desktop and an iphone app. Bonsai and Palm were always a superior combinaation to them, but without a fully functioning iphone Bonsai app I'm looking if I should change. Cost for change is high.

Bonsai is far superior, canot wait till you come out with a web version that then integrates with iphone. :D

[Mykron]

I'am using Bonsai alot on PalmOS, but now it was time for a new Device. My long lasting decision went on Android and I can't wait seeing Bonsai on my Galayxy S as soon as possible!

[yurkennis]

Albert, on 13 September 2010 - 10:24 AM, said:

I am almost willing to pay a programmer to write [Bonsai] for the android if you guys say you will not be supporting the android platform.

I think Albert is not alone. What if Natara offers its loyal users to invest into Andoroid development as much money as (s)he is willing to, in return for a promise to give back part of future Android Bonsai sales incomes proportionally to each investments? :)

This post has been edited by yurkennis: 15 September 2010 - 11:07 AM

[ToxJazz]

I would hope Natara hears not just this group of enthusiastic supporters, but also the copious reviews that demonstrate there is nothing like this. I've atarted using a free online outliner Checkvist. It's nice, but it's not designed for mobile use. It's exactly the simple type app that I think you'd pay for in the iPhone store.

I should note that for some of us who have inadvertently upgraded to Win7 64-bit we find we can't sync with our aging Palms, so there really is a pain in not having a concept like Bonsai - great on the desktop and great on the go.

I would agree Bonsai is too sophisticated for the iPhone, and would be much better suited for the Blackberry or the Android. Just port it, please, and make the world happy and yourselves wealthy. (I, like others, would invest in the development - a sure ROI).

[yurkennis]

Sorry for offtopic here, but personal messages to ToxJazz are not accepted for some reason.

ToxJazz, on 01 November 2010 - 06:37 PM, said:

for some of us who have inadvertently upgraded to Win7 64-bit we find we can't sync with our aging Palms

Could you detail on this, please? I am currently consider to migrate to Win7 64-bit -- what exactly broke in your case?

Thanks in anticipation!

[slwenglish]

yurkennis, on 02 November 2010 - 09:02 AM, said:

Sorry for offtopic here, but personal messages to ToxJazz are not accepted for some reason.

Could you detail on this, please? I am currently consider to migrate to Win7 64-bit -- what exactly broke in your case?

Thanks in anticipation!

Hello Yurkennis,

The Palm Desktop and conduit have not been upgraded to be compatible with Windows 7. So my Palm E2 is a dead PDA walking. I imagine it will still work with Windows PDAs, though, if you've got one of those.

I'm due to get a replacement laptop early next year, which will be Windows 7. From that point, I'm going to have to find another way of working, because Bonsai has been my essential note taking and time/project management app so far. I'm never going to go onto a clunky, outdated Windows PDA (unless Windows Phone 7 turns out to be a good, Bonsai-compatible option).

The guys at Natara seem to have gone a bit quiet over the last few months - Brian, I'm just hoping that means you're going to suddenly surprise us with a Christmas present (Bonsai for Android or Ipod Touch are top of my wish-list to Father Christmas!).

Stéph

[yurkennis]

I would seriously suggest Natara to create a notification form "We are working on Bonsai for Android/iPhone/WinMo7/whatever. We will inform you when it will be released: [submit your email here]". It will make situation much more predictable and giving control for userbase compared to how things are today.

See http://mylifeorganiz...e-todo-list.htm for an example of how easily it works for user.

BTW, MyLifeOrganized looks like a viable (if not overcomplicated) rival, coming in 2 weeks for iPhone and somewhere soon for Android (+existing for BlackBerry and WinMo); supporting hierarchies, dates and some filters (built-in only); with some cloud sync if one cares; with imports from Bonsai, LifeBalance and some others.

This post has been edited by yurkennis: 15 November 2010 - 09:04 PM

[wmeads001]

It looks as if Natarasoftware took a wrong turn on development. Windows for mobile is dead in the water. It is such a shame that Natara has chosen to ignore its customer base which three years ago said that it wanted blackberry. and of course apple came along as well. I guess this is just another example of a product that is so good and the company just milking the profits and loosing the plot and not investing in development.

You can see how dead in the water Natara is now by the dates of the posts on the forum. Their userbase has just got frustrated and gone elsewhere. You can also see that they do not care about their own website as "New breaking news" on the home page takes you to the 2009 article about bonsi 5.03.

I think all you bonsi users out there just have to accept that natara does not care about you and you need to find a new product

[yurkennis]

I attempted to summarize alternatives to Bonsai which I found for Android or iPhone so far, with (dis)advantages compared to Bonsai:
http://www.natarasof...sai/#entry26561

Please welcome to contribute with changes/additions (and more alternatives, of course)--I will incorporate them into the original text.

Hopefully Natara will also find this post helpful, for example to better understand existing competition and potential market niches.

This post has been edited by yurkennis: 16 February 2011 - 07:46 AM