After a multi-year on-again-off-again development plan for a new accounting application for Mac OS X, Intuit finally rolled out Quicken Essentials for the Mac on Thursday. Intuit is calling the title its first true Mac-native application.
The application lets users monitor their spending, import banking data from 12,000 financial institutions, import data from Quicken for Mac, Quicken for Windows and Microsoft Money, track stocks, and more. It doesn't, however, include some features that are already available in Quicken for Mac 2007, such as stock lot accounting, high-level investment tracking, online bill paying, and TurboTax support.
The current limitations in Quicken Essentials could, however, be addressed in future updates. Intuit is soliciting user feedback to determine which features should be added to new versions of the application.
Quicken Essentials for the Mac is priced at US$69.99.

Jeff Gamet
11” MacBook Air 1.6GHz dual-core Intel Core i5: $829.00 Delivered
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Why does Intuit bother? There is little “essentials” left in Quicken Essentials for Mac and for home-based business users who once used Quicken Home & Business, we’re still waiting for a Mac version. I’m not holding my breath. Intuit has a pretty low opinion of Mac users and this release confirms it.