Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!ucsd!ucbvax!pasteur!cory.Berkeley.EDU!fadden
From: fadden@cory.Berkeley.EDU (Andy McFadden)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple
Subject: Re: develop, Dynamo, and life in general
Summary: this is really depressing
Message-ID: <22132@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU>
Date: 15 Feb 90 21:42:33 GMT
Sender: news@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU
Reply-To: fadden@cory.Berkeley.EDU (Andy McFadden)
Organization: University of California, Berkeley
Lines: 81


In article <38644@apple.Apple.COM> mjohnson@Apple.COM (Mark B. Johnson) writes:
>You are not paying for the CD-ROM in essence in the subscription.  The cost
>of the CD-ROM is so minimal (less expensive than diskettes) that the
>subscription price really wouldn't change...its just an extra that you get
>with the subscription.

I *really* have to question this.

I've purchased bulk Sony diskettes for $0.50 each, and I know that you can
get them for even less.  Unless there are some hidden costs involved with
copying 3.5" disks, I just can't see how a CD can cost less than a 3.5" disk.

>We don't want people to have to order this stuff through APDA since you've
>already basically paid for it in a subscription.

What percentage of developers own a CD-ROM?  Ya wanna do something inexpensive?
Send out a CD and a 5.25" disk.  The old floppies are inexpensive and almost
all Apple // owners have them.  And they cost almost nothing to mail.  The
amount of Apple // stuff in the magazine would fit on one, too :-| .

[ snip ]
>Hope this helps answer your question about the logic behind it all.  Again
>I will stress that Apple is really pushing CD-ROM and there will be things
>coming out in the future that may only be available in CD-ROM format and
>not diskettes.

How incredibly stupid.  I'm sorry, but that's the way it looks from the eyes
of a college student who can't afford a CD player for music, much less for
a machine.

A lot of people have berated Apple for ignoring it's low-end market through
a lack of advertising.  But there's more to it than that.  They're turning
away the developers who write programs for these machines by charging them
large sums of money to be Offical Developer Dudes and expecting them to
own expensive hardware.

Many developers are *not* large businesses.  If you want to help people
develop on your machine, you use the cheapest possible media which is
available to the widest possible audience.  Apple is turning development
into cable TV... you want the shows, you pay the price.

But then, you don't see too many ads on cable TV, do you...

If all Apple can see in its future is high-end workstations, so be it.  But
I look at all of the nifty little things that give the //gs and the Macintosh
personality rather than functionality, and most of them are written by people
who just do it for fun.  It looks like you're trying to buy respectability
in the business world (gee, it costs a whole lot for their machines, so they
must be really good), but you're killing the hackers in the process.

>                If you are an Apple developer, it is to your benefit to
>invest in CD-ROM technology.  If you are an Apple Partner or Associate,
>you also have the opportunity to purchase Apple's drive at a highly
>discounted price.

Anyone who can afford to be a Partner or Associate doesn't *need* a discounted
price... :-(

>Mark B. Johnson                                            AppleLink: mjohnson


Apple giveth, and Apple taketh away.  Last year, for the first time, it looked
like Apple wanted to start helping.  Now being an Apple Developer is more
status symbol than anything else.

I guess if you want to go after IBM's markets, you have to play like IBM.

Congratulations, Apple.

You're just like IBM.

I'd be delighted to be proven wrong.  But SHOW me, don't tell me.

DISCLAIMER: Any flame-like material isn't directed at Apple II DTS; I know
they're trying to help.  It's directed at Macintosh, Inc. as a (failing)
business.

-- 
fadden@cory.berkeley.edu (Andy McFadden)
...!ucbvax!cory!fadden