Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!watmath!att!dptg!rutgers!cs.utexas.edu!uwm.edu!gem.mps.ohio-state.edu!apple!mjohnson
From: mjohnson@Apple.COM (Mark B. Johnson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer
Subject: Re: Apple Associate or Partner?
Message-ID: <34927@apple.Apple.COM>
Date: 21 Sep 89 19:59:02 GMT
References: <89264.143608DN5@PSUVM.BITNET>
Organization: Apple Computer Inc, Cupertino, CA
Lines: 71

In article <89264.143608DN5@PSUVM.BITNET> DN5@PSUVM.BITNET writes:
>I am addressing this question to the Apple Developer Group, or
>anybody who deals with them regularly.

I suppose since DTS is a part of these group I qualify for this.
I must state that some of the following are my own opinions, not those
of Apple Computer, Inc.

>
>I am a programmer for the Computer Based Education Laboratory at Penn State,
>and we develope courseware for the students to use.  Much of our development
>is for the Mac.  We have an application for developer status, and I am a bit
>puzzled by the difference between Associate and Partners.  The biggest
>difference (to me) is that Associates do not seem to be able to get
>technical help over AppleLink.

The differences are Technical Support via AppleLink, Conference invitations,
and hardware discounts.
Associates still get support in the form of Technical Notes, Sample Code, etc.,
but they cannot send questions to MacDTS via AppleLink.

>
>To me, this is the most important thing.  If I run into problems, it can save
>many hours of my time to be able to talk to somebody who really knows MacApp.
>
>On the other hand, we are a University, and we are not in the business of
>software publishing.  I know that our software WILL be used at other
>universities, but I have no idea of any marketing plans.  This, it would
>seem, would disqualify us from Partner status.

In a very technical sense, yes, you would not qualify for Partner status.
There are ways, however, that you can qualify if you can write a business
plan that sounds okay, are willing to pay the fee, and maybe decide for
whatever reason that you want to register yourself or your company instead
of your university.  This isn't exactly what Developer Programs wants you
to do, but there are people out there in the world who do it.  One option
many university developers do not know about is their regional SEs.  The
people in the sales offices (the Systems Engineers) are supposed to take
your development questions and pass them on to DTS to be answered for you.
You can try taking advantage of this service without cost if you have good
SEs at your location.

>
>If I recall, there was a similar complaint at the Bash Apple session at
>MacHack.  This policy seems to hurt educational and smaller software
>developers.  The software we work on at CBEL may be used by tens of thousands
>of people, but the way the form reads to me, this doesn't seem to matter.

It doesn't help you now, but all of ADG is painfully aware of this and other
problems with our current services.  We are trying to address them as we
can within budget and time constraints.  

>
>If somebody could reply with a clarification of what services I can expect
>as an Associate or a Partner, I would be grateful.  Hopefully I just misread
>the pamphlet.
>

You did not misread the pamphlet, and given some of the options you have, you
are the best person to decide how you want to approach the system to get out
of it what you need.



-- 
Mark B. Johnson                                            AppleLink: mjohnson
Developer Technical Support                         domain: mjohnson@Apple.com
Apple Computer, Inc.         UUCP:  {amdahl,decwrl,sun,unisoft}!apple!mjohnson

"You gave your life to become the person you are right now.  Was it worth it?"
                                                         - Richard Bach, _One_