Yet more Mac software bundles

Stephen Withers
Tuesday, 04 August 2009 12:46

Business IT - Technology

This bundle claims to offer $US700 value for $US49.95. The trick (and that shouldn't be taken in its derogatory sense) is that only six out of the 14 applications are guaranteed to be part of the bundle.

The core applications are Amnesia (smart uninstaller), DEVONthink (information manager), Finance 6 (money management), Interarchy, ImageFramer, and Media Catalog. That's a total of just over $US230 - not bad, but a long way short of $US700.

Others get added to the bundle as successive sales targets are reached. The first target is 500 units, at which point the iCalamus desktop publishing program joins the party.

Voila (screen capture) comes in at 2000 units, then SkypeCap (record audio and video Skype conversations), Optimism ("understanding your mental health"), ProfCast (record lectures including PowerPoint/Keynote slides and distribute as podcasts), PhotoStyler (photo processing) and MacSnapper (publish annotated images) at 5000, and finally Sandvox (web site builder) when sales reach 40,000.

It's a fair system in that all buyers from the first to the last get the same collection of software for their money, but the uncertainty seems to be putting people off - at the time of writing, only 92 bundles had been sold according to the MacWeed site, and there's only a week to go.

With just over a week to go, you probably shouldn't bank on getting any more than the initial six programs. Still, if you wanted Interarchy (or DEVONthink plus any one of the remaining four), you'll save money - except that again there's no indication that the licences you are buying include upgrade and support rights.

We're not saying that MacWeed and The Mac Sale don't provide these rights, only that when you're not buying directly from the developer, the old adage "buyer beware" is especially relevant.