I often receive questions and complaints about our Mac bundles. Most of these questions revolve around the “efficiency” (for lack of a better word) of our Mac bundles. Many of you rightfully argue that it would be much more beneficial to trim the excess apps and increase the discount for the well-branded apps within the bundle; or better yet, be allowed to select the apps you would like and have the price reflect your custom Mac bundle. These last two models would be awesome for our customers, but it takes away from an important aspect of the bundle model.
The beauty of a Mac bundle is the chance for unknown apps and their developers to make it to the limelight. This is where the “discovery” aspect of StackSocial comes into play. Those unknown apps in our mac bundles may be an afterthought for most of you, but for that developer, it’s years of their hard work finally coming to fruition.
Independent apps placed into bundles with heavy hitters like Camtasia and Parallels aren’t doing it for the money. These developers believe in their product and with the exposure they will receive from being bundled with the big-dogs, they believe their app can become a household name.
Think smaller bands opening for bigger bands. Think of all those little stores within a mall receiving all the surrounding foot traffic for big department stores like Macy’s and Nordstrom. We realize when you purchase a mac bundle, you aren’t doing it for the little indie apps. You want that headliner. You are trying to get to that Nordstrom sale, BUT, it doesn’t hurt to give a minute of your attention to that opening act or unheard of brick and mortar store at the mall.
Don’t look at a Mac bundle as a bad value if it has a couple apps you already own. They are essentially throw-ins around that well branded app (the anchor app) that is already a deal on it’s own. Most importantly, give the little guys a try. You never know, you may be getting the next Parallels at essentially no cost.
Any questions, comments, or concerns? Please please don’t hesitate to ask me @AllanBlocker on Twitter.
Cheers!
I bought the Camtasia bundle, but have not got around to using it yet. I have used Crossover move to play Windows/Steam games. I also want to use some of the other software I got with my bundle. I think it is great value.