MindMeister acquires iPhone app

28Jan

33 Comments

As some of the Techcrunchers (or followers of Ouriel Ohayon) among you might know already we recently entered into mobile device territory by acquiring MindMaker, one of the few native iPhone mind mapping tools currently available in the App Store. No need to bring up iPhone sales stats or any other justification for that decision here, as the reality today is that any self-respecting web (2.0) app needs an App Store sibling to complement its online service for users on the go.

Our ultimate goal is to provide our users with an exceptional mind mapping experience wherever they are and whatever device they use, and a native MindMeister iPhone app is a big step towards achieving that goal. We acquired MindMaker because it’s a great app and gives us a sound headstart in developing a MindMeister application, which we’ve wanted for months (the common name genealogy was just a bonus). The colorful look and feel of the maps in MindMaker is obviously a bit different to our mostly blue maps, but the rest of the app was so well done that it helped us a great deal getting started.

Melchior, the main developer of MindMaker, even gave us a hand in integrating it with the mindmeister.com API and getting the synching working. Here’s a quote from him from our press release:

MindMaker started out as a pet project but quickly became one of the leading iPhone apps for mind mapping”, says Melchior Brislinger, developer of MindMaker. “MindMeister’s acquisition brings integration with a premier web-based service and will accelerate the further development of MindMaker.

The ability to sync data with your online MindMeister account is pretty nifty, we think, particularly for a collaborative tool where different people might update the same data all the time. Create a draft map on the tube, sync it back to the cloud once your 3G connections is up again and let the others finalize it.

Right now we’re busy completing the integration. The app will support graphical views of a user’s mind maps similar to the one in our award-winning web interface. Essential editing functions will be supported on the iPhone / iPod Touch as well, with many more features to be added in upcoming releases.

Syncing between the iPhone and mindmeister.com will most likely be made available as a Premium feature – that means for paying MindMeister users only. Existing MindMaker customers will get a special discounted upgrade offer for a MindMeister Premium account.

So what about all the Blackberries, Nokias and Palm Pre’s out there? Well, for us it was clear that we wanted an iPhone app first, before following that up with other mobile interfaces. We’re Apple people and we admit it. And really, it’s just such a great device, no?

Author: Michael

33 Comments

A.Briell

January 28th, 2009 at 11:34 am

Congratulation to this deal!

Can’t wait to see the adapted version of MindMaker with MindMeister sync.

Greeting from Aachen
Andreas

Paris

January 28th, 2009 at 8:52 pm

Any clue about the release date?

Armen Shirvanian

January 28th, 2009 at 11:26 pm

This is positive to hear about, as it shows that mind-mapping is set to become even more of a powerful tool for mental networking. Some of the mind maps that I have seen and/or made have had usefulness that would not have been there had the content been presented as standard text. Spreading MindMeister to iPhones could do quite a bit to expand the user-base, and allow for viewing/refinement of the numerous maps that are already publicly visible on the service.

Torben Winther Graversen

January 29th, 2009 at 12:15 am

This is great news. Can you say anything about the upgrade path for the existing app? And do you expect the new app to be free?

I’m wondering if I should buy the current app right away or wait for the MindMeister integrated version.

- Torben

Michael

February 2nd, 2009 at 4:06 pm

Paris – not 100% sure about the release date yet, but hopefully mid-end Feb.

Torben, you might as well just buy MindMaker now, the new version most probably won’t be free either, and you will be able to import all your MindMaker maps!

Kazuo Kazama

February 10th, 2009 at 4:31 pm

Oh! I am very happy to hear that because I would like to use it on my iPhone instead of the current other map apps. Please release it asap.

Greg Balanko-Dickson

February 16th, 2009 at 6:18 pm

Great news, as an owner of the MindMaker app I am pleased.

Really excited to get my hands on the MIndmeister app as Mind Mapping is my number one way to get organized and focused.

That said, I also export my completed maps to OPML and then reuse/import them into Omni Outliner Pro, MIndmeister has no OPML export. ;-(

Sadly, I now have to export to Mind Manager then export the mmap file to OPML – is this something that could be added to the development road map soon? i.e. OPML export with notes?

Congrats on your acquisition!

Till

February 19th, 2009 at 3:41 pm

OPML import / export is on the roadmap, but right now we work on other interesting features. Stay tuned.
Till

Rob van Herpt

February 21st, 2009 at 2:01 am

Congratulations!!

Can’t wait to Geistesblitz my Iphone mindmaps into my MindMeister webspace

Happy Birthday to us! | MindMeister Blog

February 26th, 2009 at 5:29 pm

[...] embrace new technologies early on, allowing our users to create and edit maps offline or supporting new types of access. Sometimes the technology evolves so fast that we have a hard time keeping up (sorry to all those [...]

Upcoming feature roundup | MindMeister Blog

March 4th, 2009 at 1:28 pm

[...] you might have read we recently acquired the iPhone application MindMaker. We’ve spent a few weeks completing its [...]

Enclave

July 30th, 2009 at 1:58 am

Any indication of a release date?
Not having access to my mindmaps on the iPhone makes me sad…

MindMeister for iPhone finally in the App Store! | MindMeister Blog

August 20th, 2009 at 2:08 pm

[...] might remember that the MindMeister iPhone app was developed from MindMaker, which we acquired from Ultravague a while ago (that’s also why the publisher in the App Store is not MindMeister but [...]

Michael

September 23rd, 2009 at 9:22 am

Just purchased the app. I have a premium account. How do I sync edits to a map? Confused.

Michael

September 23rd, 2009 at 9:25 am

Also, how do I delete an Online mind map from the app? Again, confused. If this can’t be done, I want my money back.

Thanks for your help!

Michael

September 23rd, 2009 at 9:52 am

All edits to maps are synched automatically when you close the map. (provided you have an internet connection, if not the map is put into “Pending”). Online maps can’t be deleted from the app for safety reasons. Please contact support at mindmeister.com for further enquiries.

show

October 19th, 2009 at 8:11 am

Is this App able to type japanese?

Michael

October 19th, 2009 at 9:03 am

Yes, with a Japanese keyboard.

MindMeister acquires iPhone app

A.Briell

Paris

Torben Winther Graversen

Kazuo Kazama

Michael

Michael

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