Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!hoptoad!tim From: tim@hoptoad.uucp (Tim Maroney) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer Subject: Re: Inside Macintosh: Will we ever see a revised, updated edition? Message-ID: <10871@hoptoad.uucp> Date: 20 Mar 90 20:29:07 GMT References: <14532@phoenix.Princeton.EDU> <7202@goofy.Apple.COM> <2878@castle.ed.ac.uk> <7248@goofy.Apple.COM> <10854@hoptoad.uucp> <7257@goofy.Apple.COM> Reply-To: tim@hoptoad.UUCP (Tim Maroney) Organization: Eclectic Software, San Francisco Lines: 71 >In article <10854@hoptoad.uucp> tim@hoptoad.uucp (Tim Maroney) writes: >> Add it up. Without giving away the developer price for Apple's player, >> which is officially confidential, the cost of a developer subscription >> and an Apple CD-ROM drive is almost precisely ten times the cost of a >> printed set of Inside Macintosh. (The CD is free to subscribers.) In article <7257@goofy.Apple.COM> chewy@apple.com (Paul Snively) writes: >True, but Inside Macintosh isn't all that's on the two CDs that we've >mailed to date. Also true; the original poster was being a bit rhetorical. But he did have a valid point; you can't get the new Inside mac without sinking a ton of money into it. Well, a half-ton. You also get some other stuff, but if what you're after is a new Inside Mac, well.... Incidentally, I'd prefer a new paper edition. Half the time that I consult Inside Mac, I'm sitting in MacsBug. A HyperCard stack isn't all that useful in that situation. >> As for all the other benefits of the developer program, the hardware >> discounts are indeed very good provided you're planning on buying >> enough equipment every year to make up the $600 subscription fee. >Actually, the intent of the Partnership program is that the developer will >easily make at least his/her $600/year back in software sales, even if >there are no other benefits accrued (which there should be). Could you expand on this? I'm not sure I'm getting your meaning. >> And as for the mailings, I've talked with other developers about them, and >> we all agree that at least three quarters is instant circular file >> material. Pretty hefty price for junk mail. >This might be good material to feedback to Developer Programs. As it >stands, a lot of people have their hands in the mailings, and they're >geared toward multiple groups of people--marketers and engineers, to name >just the two most obvious distinctions. When I was at a third-party house >before starting at Apple, we threw out all of the marketing stuff but kept >the technical stuff--and this was pre-CD-ROM. It would probably be a good idea to separate these communities in the mailings. Useless-seeming mailings reflect poorly on Apple even if in fact the mailings have a raison d'etre. At the very least, stop sending Mac developers the Apple ][ Tech Notes! >> I think CD-ROM has great potential, but people are going to have to face >> facts. It's not going to be significant until the drive prices drop. >Here, here. And I'm glad that Apple has cut their prices, but they're still way too high. I have some ideas for projects which would naturally live on CD-ROM, but there's no way I'm going to sink much time into them until the market grows, which isn't going to happen until the players are comparable to floppy drives at somewhere in the $200-$300 range. What I find annoying is the probability that companies could afford to do this now. Lines making audio CD drives could easily be converted to making CD-ROM drives. There are so many personal computers now that the drives would be essentially consumer items. But there seems to be a false economy in play, in which no one wants to be the first to make their prices reasonable; "if company X is getting $750 for theirs, I'll be damned if I'll sell mine for $250!" If the prices were to be cut, they'd more than make up for it in volume. But that's not corporate-think. -- Tim Maroney, Mac Software Consultant, sun!hoptoad!tim, tim@toad.com "Gorbachev is returning to the heritage of the great Lenin" - Ronald Reagan