I think that these are indeed the two main competing apps for the GTD app space on the Mac platform. My gut feeling is that Omni has too much firepower to be outdone by iGTD. Both look like fine apps, but in the end the reputation of Omni will garner more than a few customers without much effort. That's not unjustified either. Some of iGTD's biggest selling points, too, are things that will be relatively easy for a company like Omni to implement such as integration with MailTags, synching with iPod, etc.

My experience with other apps like Actionatr is launched, Actiontastic catapults to a new level.

Where iGTD fails is in the shear beauty of the app. Omni always pays attention to fine details of UI design and for any GTD app to compete, the UI has to be flawless and beautiful, a work of art. I think Midnight Inbox might approach this.

There are many GTD implementations available for the Mac, from GTD specific (eg EasyTask & iGTD; OmniFocus is only beta at this point) to the very many note focused apps (eg. Journler, Mori, NoteBook, DevonThink) that are broader than the GTD specific apps but are being adapted and used for GTD, to the various web based apps (eg BaseCamp), and eventually there will be some worthy PIMs (nothing yet IMHO). And some folks are simply using iCal to set up a simple GTD system.

I wouldn't narrow the choices to just two. If NightHawk hits the stands at about the same time as OmniFocus does, there will clearly be some heated competition. And if some of these smaller developers would cooperate instead of letting egos and/or dreams of a new Porsche keeping firm grips on what they have to offer, perhaps they too would have more than a little chance.

When's the last time you heard of a one man shop having a great success in software development?

Two words: Brent Simmons.

I think Bookends would be good examples.

(But I still think OmniFocus is the horse to bet on here...)

To save the rest of you time, the reference is to NetNewsWire/Newsgator/Ranchero Software: http://ranchero.com/

1) "The company was founded in 2003 and has raised $18 million in venture funding to-date. The company's investors include Mobius Venture Capital and Masthead Venture Partners. You can learn more about why two million people rely on NewsGator for all of their RSS needs by visiting the RSS Learning Center."

Doesn't sound like a one man show to me. Sure Apple "started" with just 2 guys. Every company "starts" with one idea, and maybe an initial product. But they had to partner, with others, bring in more resources, to take off. That's my point. Anyone can start something, but to make it grow, you need more than one head working on it and thus you have to give up some control.

2) Frankly, I'm sure I heard of them at some point, but I don't use newsreaders so Ranchero has never been on my radar. Maybe others??

I guess I have to define "great success". NetNewsWire, Bookends and SuperDuper don't meet what I meant. Mori, though a great product is another example.

Examples of great success from the past include Claris Organizer (started by a small team then sold to/hired by Apple). Chronos (even with currently questionable products and lousy support) their team sells many apps and give a sense that (for better or worse) they are there for the long haul. SketchUp (talk about a boom; I know many of you don't know about SketchUp: exponential growth and then bought by Google). Delicious Monster.

Even if you think there are a few loner success stories, I suspect if you knew the background you'd see they weren't alone, and clearly it takes a team to create the presence that reassures customers and to refine applications and all the associated support structures to make software a great success. Though you maybe a single parent, who was it that said it takes a village?

That is after the acquisition of NNW by NewsGator. Brent successfully developed NNW into arguably the best newsreader on the market for Mac OS X. Competitors such as endo and NewsFire have entered the fray, but NNW is still the app to beat.

Not only that, but Brent was also developing the blogging companion to NNW MarsEdit before Ranchero's acquisition by NewsGator. MarsEdit was then sold to Red Sweater Software.

The reason Brent ended up selling MarsEdit and agreeing to the acquisition of Ranchero and NNW by NewsGator is that as an independent show, he had taken NNW as far as it could go. That sounds like a huge success to me.

Let's be sure we have our history straight, shall we?

I don't claim to have all the history, and I trust you wouldn't. In fact I have almost none.

I'll grant you it was a "huge success" to be able to get to a position where he could sell his creation, and I trust you understand "he had taken NNW as far as it could go" is the point I'm trying to make.

I encourage developers to get a team early as I think going solo limits how far and how good an app can go and be.

All just MHO ;-)

I think OmniFu is going to cream the competition. No contest. My 2?.

If there were no OmniFu, I'd probably go with What ToDo, not iGTD. Granted, it's been some months since my last test drive of iGTD, but it just felt a little clunky for me, even with all its bells & whistles.