Thanks again for taking the time and energy to review the ooVoo alpha (and letting me know it now apparently carries the wording ‘beta’) – we were glad you were able to download a version, especially after your comment and request on Joe Jaffe’s blog a few months back.

Your feedback is a concern to us, especially in this pre-release version and we’d like to invite you to meet with members of our senior management team who are involved in the development of ooVoo – to address your concerns as a Mac user. We can travel to Boston or meet you in New York.

We respect your opinion, and want to ensure the experience you had is not repeated by others. As Joe suggested in his comment above, we have had a couple of teething problems in the Mac version of the software that we have opened up to public alpha – but that’s the point we need user feedback to improve the software for when we are ready to release it for general availability. In general, and the from the limited feedback we’ve received so far, the Mac version of the software enabled many individuals take part in ‘My ooVoo Day’ successfully.

Personally, I’m hoping that we are able to meet our goal of having a PC and Mac product that carries the same features by end of the year. The email about “free 500 minutes of phonecalls to landline/mobile phones” was sent to Mac users in error and we are sorry it happened.

Really hope to hear from you soon, please do consider meeting us.

I can be reached by ooVoo ID: Philiprobertson… or more realistically email: ****************@oovoo.com. [Edit: My feed gets scraped by a few spambots, so I took out the email address. If you want to get in touch with Philip, try oovoo.com]

p.s. I can’t wait to review your new album. (DISCLOSURE: I’m teasing about reviewing your album)

Philip

Thanks for weighing in with your 2¢ as well, you know I appreciate your input!

Actually, to be honest, if oovoo had NO Mac client, I probably would’ve taken a look and ignored it entirely. I don’t know if that’s a better or worse thing, but as Deliver Magazine said about Green Marketing- don’t do it if you’re going to do it half-assed.

The point that I keep coming back to is that the alpha (now listed as a beta from within the app itself, btw) release is like inviting a group of people to a show… but telling a big chunk of them that they’ll have to watch from the projector room, with no popcorn. Yeah, there will be seating for them eventually, but think of the impression being made.

As for iChat, it’s part of the operating system, not a standalone client- and frankly, I wish you WOULD blog about its lack of PC compatibility. Maybe Apple will take notice and release a PC version like they did with Safari, iTunes, and Quicktime.

Apple’s got little to gain, though. They are selling an OS, not advertising or special features or however oovoo plans to make money. If oovoo eventually wants a Mac user’s cash (and here’s the part where I hope the point is made), they’re going to have to prove that the delay and inequality aren’t going to be standard operating procedure.

And when inequality is the public image you put on right out of the gate, it makes a lasting impression.

Don’t you think you’re blowing this whole Mac vs PC thing a bit out of proportion?

fwiw, there were plenty of Mac users who participated in the program and were able to experience a satisfactory (if not better) connection.

Yes, I know this is not about the program itself (and I appreciate your kind words), however I think it’s important to recognize the fact that *had* ooVoo run this program without a Mac component, you (and others) would have dumped even harder on them in the process.

I’m not defending them or even being defensive. I’m just calling your attention to the fact they did their best to accommodate an important user base, even though their Mac client is still being worked on.

…and before you mention it, yes I know that they shouldn’t release anything until it’s ready for prime time….but that’s why they call it an alpha and that’s why it was only available for http://www.myoovooday.com

In any event, I’m glad you gave it a try. I’m glad your experience got better over time. The folks over at ooVoo will continue listening to all suggestions (Mac and PC alike ).

Hopefully you’ll stick around to chat accordingly. I’m not using Skype anymore so if you want to talk to me, you’re going to have to use ooVoo

PS If you use iChat, can you use it to talk to people on PC’s? If not, perhaps I should blog about it

Dang it, and here I go forgetting things again… THANK you for commenting and being on the ball with a response. I forgot to mention that I appreciate your candor and (*gasp* dare I say it) conversational outreach.

Ah, I was wondering when one of my crayon friends would find this and smack me around a little.

I understand that the Mac version “hasn’t officially been released yet”. That’s about 80% of my problem with oovoo already. And believe me, as a longtime Mac user I’ve heard plenty of “committed to getting PC and Mac versions into parallel development tracks” statements.

Here’s the problem: oovoo has gone very, very public with a very, very unequal (read: unfinished) product. All the competitive market forces in the world do not change a user’s first impression, and now instead of “impress me” they must play a game of “convince me to come back.”

The latter is a lot harder to win. They’re going to have to go above and beyond mere parity at this point to convince Mac users that they really are a priority.