Stairways Software has released Switcher Maestro 1.0 (https://sites.fastspring.com/stairways/instant/switchermaestro), a new utility for launching applications on the Mac. It takes the window and application switching features of Keyboard Maestro and adds a new app launcher.

At the recent “Back to the Mac” event, Apple CEO Steve Jobs gave a glimpse of Launchpad, which will eventually bring the iPhone/iPad home screens to the Mac so people “don’t have to go hunting around for their apps.” However, the folks at Stairways Solutions say that organizing applications on the iPhone has never seemed like much fun to us, so they’ve got their own solution — press a hot key, type a few characters of the application name, press return and your application launches.

You can see a video of Switcher Maestro at http://files.stairways.com/movies/switchermaestro/launch.mov. The utility requires Mac OS X 10.5 or greater and is native PowerPC, Intel and Intel 64-bit.

Switcher Maestro is licensed on a per workstation basis; individuals can choose to license it on a per user basis. New customers can purchase Switcher Maestro for US$9.99.  A volume discount of 50% is available for purchases of five or more copies. A demo is available for download.