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Natives Getting Restless (4/8/98)
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Oof, we wanted to hold off on discussing Apple's new Developer Program (announced this week) until some actual developers had voiced their opinions, because we weren't sure the new pricing structure was as painful as it sounded to us. Turns out, for once we would appear to be squarely in the majority. Developer reaction to the new three-level system, which is described in a MacWEEK article, has been quite negative. Okay, maybe "negative" isn't quite the right word for it... "Postal" comes to mind (no offense to our good friends at the USPS).
Certain aspects of the new system sound good-- for instance, access to the entry-level "Apple Developer Connection Online" is free, allowing new programmers the ability to obtain technical information at no charge, and access to tech support on a pay-per-incident plan. But whereas newcomers may like not having to pay the original $250 to get any developer tech support at all, most Mac programmers are unthrilled with the other changes. If you'd like to see for yourself, there are plenty of developer reactions posted over at MacNN and MacInTouch. Basically, most developers now must pay more money to get fewer benefits; whereas $250 a year used to entitle a developer to hardware discounts, now programmers must shell out $3500 for that privilege. And even if a programmer is willing to give up the hardware discounts, the only other option is a $500 package, which is still twice as expensive as they're used to paying.
We're not sure where Apple's going with this. If the idea is to lure new small developers to the platform at the risk of alienating everyone else, someone needs a thwack upside the head. But if this pricing structure actually makes sense and the negative sentiment is just the usual grousing whenever Apple actually tries to get paid for something, well, presumably it'll all come clear in the next few weeks. Let's see what happens at WWDC-- assuming anyone shows up.
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And Now For A Word From Our Sponsors |
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 | | The above scene was taken from the 4/8/98 episode: April 8, 1998: As the formal announcement of Apple's Q2 finances draws ever closer, AtAT launches the quarterly "Beat the Analysts" contest. Meanwhile, Apple's new developer program has Mac developers seeing red, and the cryogenically frozen head of Walt Disney appears to have close ties with a certain billionaire 'round Redmond way...
Other scenes from that episode: 608: What Color's the Ink? (4/8/98) Reach for those thinking caps and magic 8-balls, because the time has arrived-- our quarterly "Beat the Analysts" contest is on once again. Next Wednesday, Apple is scheduled to announce its financial results for the second quarter, revealing once and for all whether they were able to sustain the surprise profit they reported at the end of the first quarter... 610: Mickey's In On It (4/8/98) For a company who's allegedly planning on buying Apple, Disney's not doing a very good job of making Mac users feel welcome. In particular, Disney's Daily Blast, an online service for kids that provides "over 100 differenct activities daily," doesn't support the Mac...
Or view the entire episode as originally broadcast... | |  |
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