Gus, he of Fission, Airfoil, Audio Hijack Pro fame, has had a good old rant over on his blog. Seems like he has a thing or two to say about “The Week of the Independent Mac Develper”
“That’s why we’re declaring this The Week of the Independent Mac Developer, and in an effort to spread the word about these hidden gems, we’ve put together a collection of some of the best darn software available on the Mac for a steeply discounted $49.”
Well, that’s a big crock of s***. How about this alternate title: “The Week Where You Devalue and Fleece A Bunch of Good Mac Devs”. Yea, that sounds more like it.
I’m sure it’s a great deal for anyone buying the bundle, and it’s a hell of a deal for the folks running MacHeist and the charities, but it certainly isn’t for the indie mac devs. If you do the math, that’s $3.67 per copy if they are splitting the money evenly. And that’s the extremely optimistic view. How much is MacHeists’ cut? Are they splitting it, or are the devs getting a flat rate? Let’s say it’s a $5k flat rate, and they sell 5k copies. That’s only a buck a copy. What if they sell 10k copies? That’s 50 cents a license. That’s not how you “support” indie mac devs, that’s how you tie up all their development time answering support emails.
I’m certain the developers who are participating in the bundle know what they are getting into, and have good reasons for doing so. But for MacHeist to call it “The Week of the Independent Mac Developer” and to practically give away the software… well, that’s just a f****** insult to me and all the other hard working developers out there.
Update: John Casasanta (one of the macheist guys) responds and mentions that I turned down an opportunity to bundle with macheist, and I reply with the numbers on why that was.
Now normally I stay well clear of these things, especially as I a BIG fan of Gus and think he has a good point in many ways, but as I have been closely following the MAAD initiative as well this month I have become somewhat frustrated and at the level of bitching and whining that seems to be around. Whether you like MAAD, Mac Heist or any other initiative why can’t people just see the for what they are – creative attempts to keep as many people happy as possible: exposure and potential revenue for the developers that want to participate, free (or discounted) applications for users that want to buy them, and a lot of work and potentially more traffic and subsequently revenues for the organisations that want to run them.
See the common thread there? The word want! Not “have” or “must” or “gun to your head or die”, but simply want – so to all the negatives dudes and dudesses out there if you don’t want to fine, but maybe you could shut up and allow those that do want to just get on with it?
Hi MYAPPLESTUFF: I concur with your closing statement about Gus’s rant. I just finished reading a rant from another disgruntled developer who hasn’t been part of any of the promotional sites. Not sure though what math Gus was using. Let’s see take let’s say 3,000 buyers at an average of 44.99 per bundle. It could be higher or lower. I am not privy to such things. Now then times that and then take away 25% then divide by 10 and you get $10,122.75 per app. Now some apps cost more than others…. so of course I am sure there is another formula to how the money is split up and how much MacHesit get’s to keep if any. No one really knows because those who do haven’t said as much and those claiming to know are not privy except to a deal they turned down based on what apps they had to offer.
I for one can’t think the Delish, RapidWeaver and Devon Developers among all the others are stupid, dumb and scammers. In fact after reading these two rants here and at iSlayer I gotta ask… where is the Scam? Who is getting Scammed? All I know is I paid $39 for the bundle at MH and that alone was worth it to get fully licensed copies of Delish and RapidWeaver alone but wait there are 6 others guaranteed plus the possibilities of two more. So if there is a scam going on please point it out to me so I can call/write my state’s attorney general pronto!
Exactly – no developer is going to get involved unless they want to and it fits their plans.
John Gruber has his own interesting rant. http://daringfireball.net/2006/12/iniquities_of_the_selfish