There has been a lot of controversy over MacHeist. I’ve purchased a heist in the past, mainly for ChaChing, and I never use the application because it just doesn’t do what I need it to do.
So, Lukas Mathis asks if the heists hurt the developers who are not in the bundle.
I can’t speak for them, but I don’t think the heists hurt developers in the least bit. Yes, people are getting a lot of applications for free. They may be getting an application that does everything they want, and in that case, the heist is a good deal.
The other thing, however, the heist does is expose people to classes of applications they may have never tried before. A new “to do” application, or a recipe tracker, etc.
These applications may pique interest but may not do everything the user likes. The user isn’t too put out, after all, they got 12 applications or so for $40. So they go on the hunt for an application that suits their needs better.
That is how those users end up at Panic, or Bare Bones, or even Geeks R Us.
I have no data to back these claims up, but I do have personal experience and I’ve bought applications, such as Acorn (which is in this year’s heist by the way) because I was trying other applications that came in the heist, but didn’t do everything I needed them to do.
I purchased it this time because of espresso, which I though Janet may like. But it allows me to check out offerings for a little money then keep and uodate the ones I like.
This means the author of good a program gets my business in the future. Never can tell when a program is going to be a hit with certain users.
Consider the possibility that some of these apps aren’t selling well, or at all, and thus just to get exposure the developers allow their stuff to be bundled.
Bargin bin…….???