Registered owners of standard Komplete 8 and 9, however, are granted download access to the ISO images of the DVD install discs in the event that their discs are damaged or misplaced. Neither Komplete 8 Ultimate or Komplete 9 Ultimate are available in downloadable form.They are only provided to facilitate installation. The Komplete Ultimate hard disks are not used at product runtime, and aren't intended to store any information other than the product installers.
Another distinguishing feature of Komplete Ultimate bundles is the fact that they ship with small USB hard drives for installation instead of DVDs.Those new products generally will be included in the next major Komplete Ultimate bundle, however. Any new products in the Komplete line that Native Instruments brings to market after a Komplete Ultimate release date are usually not grandfathered into that pre-existing Komplete bundle (although there have been occasional exceptions).
Unlike "standard" Komplete releases, which are a selection of popular products in the Komplete product line, Ultimate bundles contain the entire Komplete catalog of software products as of a specific date which Native Instruments specifies.
When they packed their nine best products into one giant box and dubbed it "Komplete," the message was clear: Why go anywhere else for software instruments when everything you need is right here? Today's Komplete Ultimate bundles are the soft-synth equivalent of Waves Mercury. In 2003, a seven year old Native Instruments knew what it wanted to be when it grew up: The dominant force in virtual music instruments.
UPDATE (August 1, 2016): The comparison chart has now been updated for Komplete 11! Please see the new " Native Instruments Komplete Version Comparison 2.0" for the latest updates on Komplete bundles. UPDATE (May 7, 2020): I am no longer able to stay on top of this stuff, but user gNNY from the Native Instruments forum has continued my work with his own version of the database.