Exclusive: TheMacPak to Reveal ‘the Amazon of Mac Software’ Today

Posted by Daniel Greg on 10/7/07 in Applications, Internet, Interviews, News

I have been hearing rumors around the developer community for a while now about a supposed “iTunes for MacApps”, and today I got the evidence I had been waiting for. The image below is a screenshot of a very early alpha build of a new program sent to me by Mark from TheMacPak, a well placed group in the Mac community.

TheMakPak’s new distribution app!

Now some of you may remember TheMacPak - it was a website that sold a nice bundle of Mac apps at a reduced rate. Well it seems it has, or rather will be, reinventing itself as a piece of software much like iTunes, but exclusively tailored for distributing Mac software.

According to Mark this app will be available sometime around Q1 2008. Aww that’s no fun right? We don’t want to wait! Well I have good news. Today around 9AM PST a web based version of TheMacPak’s one-stop application shop will be revealed, and at the end of this article I will dish you a coupon code to save you some skrill.

Now back to the application pictured above. Looks to me like a fairly neat solution, and I think this could be a fantastic addition to the platform and could even help a lot of developers. Curious, I headed over to the website which was empty except for a chat link. I was lucky enough to speak to Mark with TheMacPak and I hurled a couple of questions his way and here is what he had to say:

Me: Ok I’m confused. Am I right that you will have a new Mac pak released today?

Mark: Not a pack, a whole new retail venture. The image I gave you actually gives people a first look at something we’re doing in the near future, which will be the OS X native program for distributing software applications.

Me: Yeah this program sounds really ambitious. Can you give me any numbers on how many titles we can expect?

Mark: We hope to have over 1000 Mac software products on sale by years end 2008.

Me: Jeez that’s a lot. getting back to the web based app released today. How many apps can we expect to see there?

Mark: Hopefully there should be around 250 apps within the next 2 weeks.

Me: Any word on savings for the community?

Mark: Well that is tough to say because of different deals with developers but it should fall between 5-50%.

Me: So will there be bundles or will people just be able to buy whatever apps they like individually?

Mark: Eventually we will have bundles but with TheMacPak people have always complained they wanted to just buy certain software individually that was not part of any bundle. The new project will resolve this by allowing purchases of your favorite applications individually.

Me: Sounds good. Can you give me any of the developer’s who’s products we can expect to see up for sale?

TheMacPak

Mark: Pangea, BeLight Software, and Koingo Software are some of our biggest launch partners. We have all their apps, not some of them

Me: Okay so this is 100% digital distribution. That’s great but what about those folks who insist on a physical CD?

Mark: All orders will be available as custom shipped CDs for people who like backups, or who have bad internet connections. We’ll ship those CDs anywhere in the world for $10. For the first time, you’ll be able to get all your favorite Mac software on CD.

Me: Sounds good. Anything else you feel like adding?

Mark: Uhh well we’re giving away an iPod Touch. You will see that soon on our website.

me: Nice! So how about that coupon code?

Mark: Your readers can use the coupon MACAPPER at checkout for 3% off. Oh, and coupon code’s are stackable, so you can use more than one. The code will only work until October 21st.

Thanks Mark! You can bet the entire Mac community will be interested in the web based shop appearing today. Mark told me his companies vision it to have every Mac application available on one website (and eventually via an OS X based front end). Very ambitious. Will be interesting to see how this project develops and I will keep you all updated with news and developments when I hear more. In the mean time keep your eyes peeled over at TheMacPak for the release of something exciting around 9AM PST today!

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18 Comment(s)

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Andrew Brigmond said on

October 7th, 2007 at 9:00 am

Sounds good to me…but only 3% off? It’s a 10% a better round number? Thanks!

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Toni said on

October 7th, 2007 at 9:05 am

Hmm… lets hope they will conduct this one better than the last MacPack which ended as a terrible affair for many users…

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flec65 said on

October 7th, 2007 at 9:10 am

Indeed Toni. I must say I’m very skeptical about this new incarnation at the moment. I didn’t buy their last bundle but I heard it ended in fiasco…

TheMacPak said on

October 7th, 2007 at 9:13 am

Of all the customers of the last bundle, 10 experienced regrettable problems. These customers where all refunded. Since the last bundle, we have multiplied our customer support and service team by 10 times.

-3

flec65 said on

October 7th, 2007 at 9:22 am

Glad to hear that, TheMacPak.
Anyway, we’ll see what it looks like in a couple of hours now…

Fraser Drew said on

October 7th, 2007 at 9:46 am

Nice! Mac software, especially Shareware has been needing a good home for a while, a one-stop-shop kind of thing. If this works out that’ll be great!

-3

Toni said on

October 7th, 2007 at 10:11 am

To TheMacPack:

Well, that is pretty much an understatement :))

Yes. I have to honest here. I bought three packs from macpack. I have even promoted MacPak on my site.

With the first two there were no problems at all, but the last one was handled pretty, pretty badly.

Most of us received the software, yes. But only after many delays and misinformation.

We ALL experienced the regrettable problems :)) which would be visible if support forum wasn’t taken down in the middle of those regrettable problems.

The support pretty much ignored our complaints and questions for days, then they’ll promise delivery and nothing would happen for another week, then there will be some bad excuse and promise again, and again nothing.

Here and there the serial for one application will arrive, then again nothing for days…

At last all of the software eventually arrived one day, but only after the MacPack site was closed and many users were made really furious. It was many weeks too late.

I hope you’ll do better this time, but I also advise caution to all the prospective buyers.

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+11

TheMacPak said on

October 7th, 2007 at 11:02 am

We’d like to quickly outline our new support policy. It’s very simple.

All orders will be processed within 48 hours, or your money back and all support requests will be responded to within 72 hours, or we’ll give you a dollar of store credit.

Thanks for your comments.

-11

Greg H said on

October 7th, 2007 at 12:33 pm

After the Productivity Pack fiasco, I told myself that I was never going to buy anything from TheMacPak again. Lets hope this changes my mind.

+14

ErichD said on

October 7th, 2007 at 4:45 pm

I”m a bit disappointed with the site so far. I can’t say I’ve had a bad experience in the past, as the only Pak I bought was the first one, and I’ve been Extremely happy with the apps in that bundle.

If the site does indeed turn into an application, a la the MacNurse, that would be very welcome. On its own, the site is way to busy, with far too many ads. Seriously, if MacApper had that design, I’d have not visited again.

Oh, and as far as the 3% discount code - guys, that IS after a prety enormous discount already applied (you have to click the item to actually see the discount). If you do need any of the apps, definitely jump on it. Even if you don’t have confidence in theMacPak, you can have confidence in all the devs.

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carlos said on

October 7th, 2007 at 7:01 pm

A well placed group in the Mac community?
The guy(s) from MacAppaDay, TheMacPack, WasteaWeekEnd and other fiascos?
The Amazon of Mac software?
Hahaha…is this a joke, right?

+11

Yong Hwee said on

October 7th, 2007 at 7:05 pm

I don’t exactly have a good impression of theMacPak after the last pack I bought from them was crappy.

Let’s wait and see..

+11

Sanjay Mehta said on

October 7th, 2007 at 11:31 pm

10 people had problems? I beg to differ. I signed up for the May MacPak on day 3 or so and had to wait for weeks for a response. Any response. The only reason I got all the license keys in the end was thanks to the developers who responded to my complaints directly.

Mark Howson, on the other hand, only responded with a form letter once and to the Paypal complaint, again with a form letter.

I also recollect several promises he made (and never kept) … for example, he committed to contacting every one affected in person to see how he could do better. This was on his forum, before he took it down. Yet to see any email from him.

Thank you, but no thank you. I’ll stick with MacZot and MuPromo.

+10

DanH said on

October 8th, 2007 at 3:35 am

My God the site looks awful. Really, truly, terrible. It’s like I’m back in 1998 or something! Like ErichD said, the site is too busy because it’s overflowing with ads. Blech… Maybe you guys are still working on the CSS or something? Or perhaps you’re going for the no frills “bargain basement” look, in which case you’ve succeeded 110%

+11

Dink said on

October 8th, 2007 at 10:56 am

Never again TheMacPak !!!

I wasn’t refunded after the last terrible Pak. No responses to my mails. No answers in the threads in their forum. Nothing happened a long time. And suddenly all was delete. By illness i guess. The forum an the website were gone…

Never again! Sorry.

I’ll stick with MacZor or MuPromo. A better service.

Greetz
Dink

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Brad said on

October 8th, 2007 at 5:41 pm

Not only does the site look horrible, its an asp powered website selling mac software

Techslacker said on

October 9th, 2007 at 2:19 pm

“We’d like to quickly outline our new support policy. It’s very simple.

All orders will be processed within 48 hours, or your money back and all support requests will be responded to within 72 hours, or we’ll give you a dollar of store credit.”

Processed within 48hrs or money back? That sounds a little bold if traffic actually takes off. I guess the question might be do you still get your order? It’s easy to say that you’ll get your money back but I’ve seen places that say that but it also means the order is cancelled.

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Andrew Brigmond said on

October 9th, 2007 at 2:24 pm

I do believe that means that the order would be canceled. Otherwise I could go buy a nice car and then decide I don’t like it 6 hours later…unfortunately, I don’t get to keep the car, but I do get my money back.

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