Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Quicken slips again!

It's been a while since I've checked in... Decided I'd stop by Intuit's site and see if there's any news about our favorite vaporware, and there's this note on their site (posted 7/13/09):
We anticipate releasing our next version of Quicken for Mac (formerly Quicken Financial Life for Mac) in February 2010.
This same page says that pre-orders will start in October 2009.

Let's review the history here:
  • The latest version of Quicken for the Mac is Quicken 2007. Like car model years and Madden football, the '2007' in the title means that it was released in late 2006.
  • January 2008: at MacWorld Expo, Intuit announces the next version of Quicken, titled "Quicken Financial Life for Mac".
  • The public beta started in September 2008, and at the time they anticipated a ship date of "this winter" (meaning, presumably, sometime between December 2008 and March 2009).
  • We got our hands on the beta around December 2008 (after Intuit had initially said that public response to the beta was "overwhelming"). In December 2008 they announced that QFLM would be released in Summer 2009.
  • Now here we are in the dog days of summer '09, and the word from Intuit is that the product (no longer called QFLM) will ship in March 2010.

Assuming that the March 2010 deadline sticks (and there's really no reason to believe this, but let's pretend), this will mean that almost four years will have passed between versions of Quicken for the Mac.

The folks at Intuit have a blog posting discussing this latest slip/ship date; the comments on it are fairly scathing.

Truth be told, I'm not surprised that the date has slipped once again. I didn't post anything about the QFLM beta we got our hands on because there was so little to talk about -- huge gigantic features were just not there (but, boy, was there cover flow!). Calling it beta was generous at best.


5 comments:

pengstrive said...

I am a young man very excited to start to use a software to manage my finances. I started with Buddie but it's no longer good for me. I tried many of the famous tools for mac and none of them looked right. I recently tried iCash which at first seemed to be good enough for me but after few days I threw it out. I looked at the Quicken Home & Business 2009 and I really liked the rich features which I thought will make my life easier. And since the few months back I am waiting for a version for mac. I found your blog enjoyed reading some of your posts and am giving up on Quicken for mac.

You seem to put a lot of work on this, so what's the bottom-line? do you recommend using VMWare and Quicken on windows or did you find any near-to-descent software for mac. I don't like the idea of having to fire up my windows every time I want o manage my finances but if there is no good alternative to quicken I think I should do that.

Tom said...

My solution right now is to use an old version of Quicken (2006), and then use a spreadsheet to keep track of my envelope budgeting system. I am going to give Neobudget a look in the next few days -- look out for a post soon.

Part of the answer to the "what should I use?" question depends on what you're trying to do. If all you need to do is keep your checkbook, then maybe even the online Quicken could work okay. If you want to be able to print checks, track investments, etc., then VMware and Windows Quicken might be the ticket.

pengstrive said...

Thanks you Tom. I think the Quicken on VMware is the way to go. I really like the set of features - it's too bad that intuit has been too dishonest about releasing the mac version.
I really appreciate you responding! I know I could find my answer somewhere in your posts.

pengstrive said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Tom said...

My pleasure! Best of luck, and let us know if you find any other alternatives.