Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!killer!pollux!ti-csl!m2!holland From: holland@m2.csc.ti.com (Fred Hollander) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer Subject: Re: Was there a fee for Certified Developers? Message-ID: <68465@ti-csl.CSNET> Date: 29 Jan 89 04:47:49 GMT References: <1989Jan27.144857.1809@cs.rochester.edu> Sender: news@ti-csl.CSNET Reply-To: holland@m2.UUCP (Fred Hollander) Organization: TI Computer Science Center, Dallas Lines: 48 In article <1989Jan27.144857.1809@cs.rochester.edu> @DOUGHNUT.CS.ROCHESTER.EDU:miller@CS.ROCHESTER.EDU writes: >From: Brad Miller > > Date: 26 Jan 89 19:38:51 GMT > From: holland@m2.csc.ti.com (Fred Hollander) > > One of the points they used to push to encourage developers to become > certified is that it doesn't cost anything. Pure benefit: marketing info, > developer tech support, developer prices, product announcements, system > software upgrades,... - all free for serious developers. I guess Apple has > been overwhelmed with the number of "serious" developers just after low prices > that they felt they needed to discourage people with an exhorbitant yearly > fee. Personally, I think they will be very successful. But, I think a more > judicious review of applications would be more effective for weeding out > the "discount-seekers" based on intent rather than money. > >The question is, why should apple have to keep the prices of their hardware >artificaily high to support developers for products a particular end user >may never want or need? Seems to me this fee structure moves things in the >right direction: let those that benefit, pay. It just comes out in higher >prices for that particular *product* then, rather than a tax on all new >hardware sold. Lets face it, Mac hardware prices are quite high on a price >performance curve compared to competitors. The reason Apple should support developers is to improve the Macintosh environment. Apple feels very strongly about this and how the development of good third party software and hardware can directly improve their sales. The question is then, should the developers pay $600 a year to support the developer program to offset higher prices, as you suggest? Assuming that Apple sells only 500,000 Macs each year (hopefully a very conservative estimate) then the extra burden on the purchasers would only be: $600 * 8,000 developers / 500,000 Macs = $9.60 Hardly a significant cost relative to the cost of any Macintosh, yet it can certainly be a significant burden to new developers who can barely afford the cost of getting started as Mac developers, even at developer prices. Don't get me wrong, I have very high praise for their developer programs. I have had very good dealings with them and developer tech support has helped me out on a number of occasions. I'm only questioning Apple's decision to move this financial burden on to the developers. Fred Hollander Computer Science Center Texas Instruments, Inc. holland%ti-csl@csnet-rela The above statements are my own and not representative of Texas Instruments.