The Joys of Bundling
There has been a recent flurry of activity in the Mac community regarding the bundling of applications. MacHeist has just recently concluded its second bundling attempt in which they offered 14 products normally priced almost $500 for only $49. In addition to the bundle, 25% of their sales are being donated to charity. The first year the bundle was offered, they sold approximately 16,000 bundles in one week. This year they sold approximately 44,000 bundles over a two week period.
Most of the opposers to this particular bundle have focused their criticisms from the viewpoint of a developer who offers his application in the bundle. We hope to dispel such negativities in this article.
End-Users’ Perspective
From the end-users standpoint, this bundle was a no-brainer. If there was even one application in the bundle that you desired, this bundle was the way to go. Most of the applications offered are normally sold at or above the bundle price. There has been some criticism that some of the apps offered were “special” promo versions. These special versions are equivalent to the current shipping version but could potentially charge customers in the future for major upgrades. In my mind, this would not be a show-stopper for an end-user purchasing this software. I, as an end-user, get the current fully functioning version and, in the world I live in, I have already been conditioned to paying for upgrades. This did not even effect all of the applications in the bundle. From what I saw, only 3 of the applications had these special promo versions and nothing was explicitly mentioned that I’d have to pay for upgrades.
The bundle has also exposed end-users to apps that they might not have explored had they not been included. For example, I brought the bundle just because Pixelmator was included. When I bought the bundle, I downloaded add installed all of the apps. Once I started using some of the other apps, I became hooked. On paper, the app 1Password didn’t seem like something that I’d need. Now that I have used it, it is indispensable. I would have never known this without trying and I would have never tried it because it doesn’t sound that exciting.
The charity donation was also a nice touch. The bundle was set up such that the buyer could specify which charity out they would support. The amount of money raised was prominently displayed on the front and was updated in real-time. I enjoyed going back to the site just to see how much was raised.
