MacHeist

MacHeist is ending this week and so far it generated over $80K for charity and it looks like they will be able to meet their goal of $100K. But it also generated quite a stir in the independent Mac developer community. Not surprisingly, developers are afraid that this campaign that targets cheapsters will hurt the perceived value of the Mac software.

Guys, calm down! You attribute way to much power to those desperate blokes. It would have been quite spectacular if they did posses the power to influence the market in such titanic proportions, but they don't. They are just trying to come up with an interesting marketing gimmick (something that is rarely successful more than once). And they chose to target cheapsters because it is easy - not the strategy I would choose for my marketing campaign, but is a valid strategy nonetheless. Could it hurt the future sales of those involved? Absolutely it could. (It could also help the sales. It depends on so many things...) But there's absolutely no danger to those not participating in this campaign. You see, just because Walmart is selling jeans on the cheap doesn't mean that 7 For All Mankind has no chance at selling their's at a much higher price. Don't target the cheapsters and you'll be fine as far as the perceived value of your product goes.