Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!wuarchive!gem.mps.ohio-state.edu!apple!keith From: keith@Apple.COM (Keith Rollin) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer Subject: Re: MPW target market & usage Message-ID: <35966@apple.Apple.COM> Date: 27 Oct 89 06:32:17 GMT References: <16255@dartvax.Dartmouth.EDU> <35785@apple.Apple.COM> <408@iconsys.UUCP> Distribution: na Organization: Apple Computer Inc, Cupertino, CA Lines: 68 In article <408@iconsys.UUCP> tom@iconsys.UUCP (Tom Kimpton) writes: >In article <35785@apple.Apple.COM> keith@Apple.COM (Keith Rollin) writes: >> >>I'd like to make one other comment about the price of MPW. Almost the entire > ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ >>price of MPW is for covering the cost of document duplication. APDA tries to do > ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ >>a classy job with this, and it costs them a lot of money. The large amount of >>documentation adds to the heavy cost. >> >Say whutt??? > >Not having MPW, and not knowing how much documentation it has, >I did a ballpark figure (MPW C w/SADE): > > 1000 pages * $.05/page = $50 > 10 binders * $4/binder = $40 > 20 disks * $5/disk = $100 > ----------------------------- > $190 > >Scale up for more pages, scale down for: cheaper (and/or fewer) binders, >cheaper duplication (manual & software), fewer disks. > >I think I remember APDA quoting $475 for this combo. ^^^^ The MPW C bundle is $400. Tim Endres did a good job of taking into account overhead such as labor, build- ing leases, 800 number, APDAlog, etc. in another posting. You should also take into account the cost in developing MPW in the first place, in addition to helping subsidise future development costs. What I'd also like to do is try to come up with some better estimates than what you have above. Note that these are just *MY* estimates, and may be off by a sizeable amount. It is also for the full MPW bundle: 2300 pages * $.10/page =$230 Vol 1: 640 Vol 2: 350 Asm: 325 C: 221 Pascal: 394 SADE: 150 Other: 220 (ResEdit and Macsbug) 14 disks * $3/Disk = $42 6 Binders * $4/binder = $24 (I'll take your price estimate on this) ----- $296 My estimate of duplication costs per page comes from the fact that we try to do a pretty snazzy job of duplicating the manuals. The paper is relatively heavy, nicely white, and the print is raised, dark, and crisp, in an attempt to make everything look nice. My APDAlog has the price of the full MPW bundle at $525. So it looks like I was in partial error. The documentation doesn't take up the majority of the price of MPW. However, it does seem to be a _significant_ portion of it. -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Keith Rollin --- Apple Computer, Inc. --- Developer Technical Support INTERNET: keith@apple.com UUCP: {decwrl, hoptoad, nsc, sun, amdahl}!apple!keith "Argue for your Apple, and sure enough, it's yours" - Keith Rollin, Contusions