[MacTel]

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The Mac version of Quicken is alive and well, contrary to reports from Intuit's own customer service representatives. <a href="/news/2007/08/15/quicken/index.php">[more]</a>

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Apple, please develop an accounting program for the mac or pay a company to do it. thanks

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Intuit's market cap is $9.5 billion. Apple could just buy them with stock and cash and be done with the "Mac Death" rumors. Microsoft wanted to buy them at one point. Why shouldn't Apple buy them?

[jedi228]

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Ill-informed customer service reps employed by Intuit have erroneously told Mac customers that Quicken 2007 would be last version for the Mac platform.

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Uh huh.
Customer Service Reps don't make up stuff on their own. This was obviously on their script--there are no errors. Then later, some higher up had the bright idea of trying to migrate as many Mac users as possible to the new web based product.
Uggh, I will not buy a web based product.

[KBeat]

There will not be a desktop version of Quicken 2008 for the Mac. The program would have required a total rewrite to become a Universal Binary app, and Intuit decided the expense wasn't justified. They will be announcing the online version as a replacement once it is ready. They are not ready to make the announcement just yet, hence the PR garbage they fed Macworld.
Believe me, if there were to be a 2008 it would already be well into beta testing. I've tested for them for many years and I am very familiar with the product cycle. The product doesn't exist. Intuit has wanted to drop development for the Mac for quite sometime, and had tried to do so once before, just before the original iMac was released and Steve Jobs himself asked them not to drop it. This time, using the move to Intel as their excuse, they are pulling the plug.

[jbh001]

Two thoughts:
1. Hoping for the best, perhaps Intuit will release Quicken 2008 as a Leopard/Intel only product. This would allow them to only have to deal with Leopard APIs without having to worry about legacy coding. Hence the wait until after Leopard is released. Not that Quicken really needs 64-bit capabilities, but sticking to Leopard APIs may be reason enough.
2. Numbers supports OFX files. The OFX format was developed, in part, by Intuit. Even though Quicken uses QFX format, my experience had been that one can generally just change the file extension from .QFX to .OFX and be fine (and vice versa). The only reason that Quicken does not directly support OFX is that Intuit wants a way to make sure your financial institution is up-to-date on its Intuit friendship dues before processing any QFX files. So with Numbers supporting OFX, this opens up a potential migration path away from Quicken's lock-in.

[kdbarto]

The major reason I use Quicken (as opposed to any other home accounting program) is the integration with TurboTax.
If another program can import Quicken, track the checking and update the Stock/Bond accounts from an online download service, AND export the whole thing to TurboTax at the end of the year, I'm willing to look at it.

[macnews]

I also am an active tester for Intuit and wonder about the rumored "death" of mac support. Many years ago, Intuit killed off the mac version of Quickbooks. They eventually brought it back just a few years ago. They had to bring it back for financial reasons, and reports I have heard indicate it has been positive for Intuit with mac Quickbooks. If they are keeping Quickbooks, I don't think they would just kill off Quicken. Could be wrong, but hope I'm not. I am, however, tired of the "switch to intel" excuse because years ago that was the reason for all the delays in getting software on the mac "if only they used intel chips."

[myramoki]

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1) not all of use are using Virtualization! So that is not a good option.
2) Why would a Mac committed person buy a PC software as long as the Mac software is available? - That really kills the Mac software!

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On #1, yeah that's certainly a point I can't argue with. Especially if your on PowerPC and only have the very slow and EOL-ed VirtualPC to work with. It was just barely fast enough for me to run Quicken for Windows.
As to #2, thats easy: When there is a easily superior product available on Windows who the developer has consistently shown no desire to bring their Mac version into feature parity with for years, do you suffer with the half-assed Mac version or use the Windows version? I would gladly pay for a Mac version of the software if it was as good as the Windows one. But Intuit has shown no desire to provide such a thing.

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Of course, to get there, first you have to have:
1. Parallels license
2. Windows license
3. Quicken license
4. RAM upgrade so you can shoehorn that second OS on top of all the Mac stuff normally running
You could be looking at $400+ to run Quicken in virtualization.

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If you look at it from just being able to run one program, sure, its kinda pricey. But if you figure the extra the extra RAM will be a benefit when your not doing virtualization, the cost isn't that much. Your already paying for a Quicken license on the Mac, so just pay for the next upgrade (ie: yearly release with 2-3 new features) by buying a Windows copy. If you don't have Windows, then yeah, thats a cost, although quite a few of us have legal (or not so much) copies already.
And all of that gives you access to not just Quicken, but everything else you couldn't run on a Mac. IE6/7 for web development compatibility anyone? Money instead of Quicken perhaps? Latest version of Office with ALL the features (like VBA)? etc etc. Sure, some of us might not need that all, and if you just want to run Quicken and thats it, it definitely is a pretty costly way to go.
Personally, I got sick and tired of paying Intuit every year (or every other year even) for a new version of Quicken for the Mac that hardly ever added anything new, which didn't have feature parity with its Windows brethen (WHY can I not download data from every institution that I can from Windows? Its a DATA format, why are you using two different kinds??), that I can't do insert various feature ideas . Its not like people have never mentioned this before to Intuit, nor is it like that other companies can't manage to put out feature parity Mac versions, plenty of companies do. But they just keep putting out the same thing year after year. At least I have all the latest features on Windows and I'm not getting some stupid feature like iCal integration. I don't give a crap about that while I can't download information from my bank yet.

[jofallon]

iBank is pretty, but it's slower loading a 4 years of checking data than I'd believe possible. Quicken and Moneydance both load the same data quickly.
With the allegedly higher market share of the Mac in the last year, this might not be the likeliest time for Intuit to get out of the market, especially since a lot of the new users are young.

[bastion]

I am, however, tired of the "switch to intel" excuse because years ago that was the reason for all the delays in getting software on the mac "if only they used intel chips."
While a lot of users expected that to be the case, very few serious software developers even tried to use the processor architecture as an excuse not to release a Mac version, and only a handful (generally in entertainment or digital media) did so legitimately.
The real expense behind the switch to "Intel" for a lot of large developers is actually the switch to a different set of development tools necessary to target OS X on x86 chips. It's not necessarily cheap or easy to migrate a significant code base to new tools, even before you touch a single line of code.

[mmeister]

For the record, if Intuit only offers up only an online version, then Quicken for Mac is indeed dead.
I'm sure the Intuit rep is looking to play a semantic game here. Intuit will claim that if there is a web version, the Mac version is not dead. Not true.
The reality is that Intuit is not being honest and upfront. They've put themselves into a credibility mess, and that's not what a company that deals with your finances should do.

[Steve_S]

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With Parallels and an intel Mac, it no longer makes any difference.

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I have no intentions of installing Windows on my Mac. Virtualization software is NOT a solution to the problem. I'd just assume buy a Dell before accepting this as a common solution to Mac platform software issues.
When you support Windows based solutions, you're doing nothing to support the Mac platform. Vendors should be held accountable for their decisions. For me, they didn't get an upgrade from me because they chose not to make Quicken 2007 a universal binary. There is a consequence for their actions or lack there of.

[Steve_S]

I just noticed that Quicken is no longer bundled with the iBook, iMac, etc. anymore. When did that happen? I always assumed the majority of Intuit's Mac sales were via bundled software in the consumer line as they have for years.
When Intuit threatened to leave the Mac platform years ago, Apple agreed to bundle their product with it's consumer line of machines in order to keep them on the platform. Now that they don't appear to be bundled with these machines, it is possible they are leaving the platform. Or, did Apple just dump Quicken until they get onboard with a universal binary? I hope that's the case.

[charlieartist]

Not to digress too far, but this is why I went with MYOB instead of Quickbooks. This was in the OS X transition period, and Intuit had at the time stated they would no longer support Mac OS. I had been a loyal Quicken user for some time, but that killed it for me.
Another solution for some may be FileMaker, depending upon how complex you wish to make it. At the very least, chances are remote that FileMaker support will be dropped for Mac OS, since the company is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Apple.
Even if I were a Windows user, I would be leery of Intuit's tactics. After all, I imagine tweaking their apps for Vista didn't come that easy either. Sure, the PC user base may be larger, but do they spend as much per unit as Mac users? It has been known for some time that Mac users keep up to date more than their Windows counterparts...

[UfoPilot]

There's always "Moneydance"