At long last, the first update to the initial release has hit the App Store. Here’s what’s changed:

New Features

• Auto Correct support for the following languages (based on the built-in iOS dictionaries): Danish, Dutch, Australian/Canadian/UK/US English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish
• Full external keyboard support, including all keyboard shortcuts
• Proper handling of text entry in Korean
• Auto Save (currently occurs every 3 minutes)
• Dictation (on supported devices)
• Ability to enable or disable numbering for specific headings

Bug fixes

• Inability to edit built-in table style
• Applying direct formatting within a table cell messing up column widths
• Several crashes during typing and selection

Other improvements

• Optional “toggle” mode for virtual trackpad
• Scroll document when using virtual trackpad

The other piece of exciting news I have is that I’ve decided to run a special pricing offer on the app for the next two weeks. From now until August the 27th, you can get the app for US$6, instead of the regular price of US$15 (note that prices vary somewhat between different countries depending on exchange rates).

Most of the feedback I’ve had regarding pricing to date has basically been of the form “It’s not worth $15 for what it currently does, but will be once all the promised features are in”. So this is basically a strategy to get the app out to more people and increase awareness. Feedback is also really important to me at this early stage (perhaps even more so than sales), so the more people who use it, the more data points I can get on what features people want to see both in the short term and long term.

I’ve been giving a lot of thought to pricing strategy over the past few weeks. Sales started off really well after the initial release and publicity, but have been fairly slow over the last couple of weeks. Pricing is one of the most difficult things to get right on the app store, and I’ve decided I need to experiment and get feedback on this issue. One option I’m considering is having a “basic” and “pro” version of the app (the latter available as an in-app purchase), which will give users an opportunity to try out the basic features without having to put up too much money, and then upgrade to get the more advanced features if and when they need them. Exactly what features will be included in each version is yet to be decided. Note that if I do go down this route, everyone who has bought the app so far (either at the $15 price or at the current 60% discount) will automatically get access to the pro version as these features become available.

If you have any thoughts on this approach I’d be really interested to hear them.

Since submitting this version about a week and a half ago, I’ve been continuing to work on improvements in a number of areas, almost all of which have been minor usability issues that, while not critical, do result in a usage experience that isn’t as smooth as it should be. Version 1.0.2 is getting pretty close to ready, and I anticipate submitting it to the app store fairly soon. I’ll have more to say on these improvements in future posts, as well as some of the more common questions I’ve received about the app of late.

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