I've purchased quite a few of them in the last year or two, but I tend to not get much value out of them though. There's so much new software all at one time that I end up not using any of it. This is just my problem and could be fixed by being a bit more diligent about trying the applications out.
Anyone else experience something similar and have tips?
I have the same problem, there's usually one app there I really wanted to buy some time ago but never did and a bunch of other apparently interesting ones which make the higher price for that wanted app look cheap in comparison to the solo app which is in fact cheaper.
It's not the same thing but it reminds me of the business plan of Smartbox: you buy it as a gift to someone who never uses it until it expires.
It took me a while to understand what they're offering. The design is a little too much bloated. Hardly understand anything on what comes in the bundle after spending ~20 seconds on the site.
It is "spam," but much in the way that O'Reilly's book deal was spam, or the way that the 23andme 100 buck deal was spam.
I'm upvoting this, as several of the apps were on my "nice to have" list, but not essential. Occasionally a really good deal should make it onto the board.
I didn't think people that read HN are influenced by prizes and similar cheap marketing tricks
Let's do some math:
Let's say that only 4000 people buy the bundle (highly unlikely, probably much more), the cost of the macbook and ipad is $2000
Your expected value from the prizes is $2000 / 4000 = $0.5.
If it is US, they're not following US sweepstakes law, which is the reason every other sweepstakes you see advertised says "no purchase necessary". So it seems anything goes for their contest?
