Ethics of Student Apple Developers Connection

[asiananimal]

My friend at UCLA told me the other day about Apple Developers Connection for Students and how you can pay $99 and get monthly DVDs of new mac apps and major OS updates, but he told me the best thing is you get a one time only HUGE Discount on hardware. However, after more research I found out that this is for developers.

Currently I am a Computer Science at the University of Califorina majoring in Computer Science, with emphisis in Softwear Engr. but this iBook i want to buy is my first mac since the old school macintoch. However, do wish to learn about the inner workings of OSX. I was curious to know if the macRumors community thinks it's ethical for me in piticular to use this program.

Would it be ethical if i decide to join ADC and not using the discount. Joinning for the recources that ADC offers.

Having that said, i was wondering what kind of discount one could get if they were an ADC using this one time only discount. I was looking at the mac pages about ADC and there wasn't a define % or number. People who's used this program could you relay back how much discount you get. Is it beyon what is listed on http://store.apple.com/AppleStore/WebObjects/ADC?qprm=38839 or is there more. If thats it, it doesn't seem very HUGE. It looks like what the EDU discounts would be.

Could people who've used this discount tell me about their experiences and the process they went throught to get this discount. What their overall opinion is and just general comments

 

[Grimace]

The discount is a little bit better than EDU, but remember that the $99 fee must be factored in.

If you want to learn about the inner workings of OSX and might try your hand at developing a useful app or two based on what you learn - the Student Developer program is fine for you. Apple asks to see that you are currently enrolled in school, and use to look for CS type classes; they may not be as stringent these days.

The student ADC is only for a year.

 

[Max Miles]

How big is the discount? I'm a student and am saving up for a G5 this fall.

 

[Little Endian]

How big is the discount? I'm a student and am saving up for a G5 this fall.

http://developer.apple.com/membership/usa.html

The discounts are as large as 20% off the list price on certain Hardware.
The Power Macs are priced from $1599-$2399 as opposed to the $1999-$2999 regular price, PowerBooks are also heavily discounted. The displays and many other accesories are no better than what the EDU store offers price wise. The Developer discounts used to be much better on the displays until the most recent Aluminum update. One used to be able to get a 20" Cinema Display for only $1039 now it is the same as the EDU pricing of $1169. Unless you are serious about learning to develop for the Macintosh platform I suggest just settling for the EDU store as the Developer discounts are incentives for making new developers and retaining them. I suspect the prices where increased as a result of people over abusing the ADC discount or perhaps it has just gotten to popular. Then again maybe Apple decided that a 61 million dollar profit on a $2Billion revenue was indeed too poor and decided to eeek more money out of existing sources.

 

[scottwat]

About equal

If you factor in the adc cost of 99$ and add the apple care, which as far as I'm concerned is a must, most of the cost of the ADC ends up being roughly equal to the edu prices. But you would have the added advantage of the developer connection.

 

[Peyote]

If you factor in the adc cost of 99$ and add the apple care, which as far as I'm concerned is a must, most of the cost of the ADC ends up being roughly equal to the edu prices. But you would have the added advantage of the developer connection.

So you're saying the EDU people don't buy AppleCare and student dev people do? That make a lot of sense.


The discounts are very nice, even WITH the $99 fee. If you price out a nice G5, you're gonna save about $1000 compared to the regular price, and about $500 compared to the EDU price.

 

[saabmp3]

I'm an ADC member, I did it mostly because of the hardware discounts. Even after the 99 dollar fee, the price was WELL worth it on my 12 inch PB. It's nice getting the new software in the mail every month and all the other goodies you get when you sign up.

I'm an Electrical Engineering student, as long as your major is somewhat technical and your going to be using the computer for some sort of development (not to say of what) then it's a good use.

BEN

 

[Max Miles]

I checked out prices and still there's a $200 saving, factoring everything in. Plus as saabmp say's, new software each month. I'm interested where Peyote got his numbers.

~m

 

[Grimace]

I checked out prices and still there's a $200 saving, factoring everything in. Plus as saabmp say's, new software each month. I'm interested where Peyote got his numbers.

~m

The discounts aren't quite as big as he says. You don't get new software each month, you get new developer tools on a CD. Ways to build/make software for OSX etc.

 

[superbovine]

My friend at UCLA told me the other day about Apple Developers Connection for Students and how you can pay $99 and get monthly DVDs of new mac apps and major OS updates, but he told me the best thing is you get a one time only HUGE Discount on hardware. However, after more research I found out that this is for developers.

Currently I am a Computer Science at the University of Califorina majoring in Computer Science, with emphisis in Softwear Engr. but this iBook i want to buy is my first mac since the old school macintoch. However, do wish to learn about the inner workings of OSX. I was curious to know if the macRumors community thinks it's ethical for me in piticular to use this program.

Would it be ethical if i decide to join ADC and not using the discount. Joinning for the recources that ADC offers.

Well, if you actually think about this for a minute... the ADC student memebership is designed to give students a chance to learn apple software and hardware architecture so can go out into the world having some development expierence. so yes, it would be ethical to take advantage of ALL the features of ADC. If apple didn't want you to take advantages of the privledges of ADC they wouldn't have let you do it. it wasn't a simple over sight or they hope that college students would be ethical even if you didn't own any apple hardware. Think about it, lets take windows for instance. There is a lot computer science students that need to work on Sun workstation or windows machine to develope their projects. the unversity provides are and software for you to accomplish this. some offer macs to accomplish this as well. not one of those companies would ever discourage you from learning about their products and how to develope on especially if you were a student. you could be a student who just uses the mac's in the lab to do their development projects, but would like a resource. the fact that you get a discount with the hardware is a perk designed to encourage developers to buy the lastest apple hardware, so you can for it. this helps apple, it doesn't hurt them.

 

[Peyote]

The discounts aren't quite as big as he says. You don't get new software each month, you get new developer tools on a CD. Ways to build/make software for OSX etc.

When you price out a dual 2.5 w/2 gig ram, 23" display, and applecare, you normally pay 5700.

When price out the same system using the dev discount, you pay 4800. You are saving $900 before the $99 fee...so you save $800. I was close enough. It's splitting hairs to argue about $100-$200 when you are dropping $5000 on a machine.

The bottom line is that the discounts are very nice...certainly better than the EDU discounts and certainly better than the regular price. Nuff said.

 

[Max Miles]

Interesting Peyote, it seems the discounts are different for different products. Thanks.

(like the name by the way. I'm in Tucson, AZ. We know about Peyote.)

 

[Grimace]

When you price out a dual 2.5 w/2 gig ram, 23" display, and applecare, you normally pay 5700.

When price out the same system using the dev discount, you pay 4800. You are saving $900 before the $99 fee...so you save $800. I was close enough. It's splitting hairs to argue about $100-$200 when you are dropping $5000 on a machine.

The bottom line is that the discounts are very nice...certainly better than the EDU discounts and certainly better than the regular price. Nuff said.

Nope, it's $5100 for that setup. We are talking about options for college students. College students have the option to use the EDU pricing. The "normal" price may be $5700, but the EDU price is $5100, only $200 cheaper than the ADC price (including the $99 fee).

BTW, you can save a bundle by not buying Apple RAM and by getting applecare not at purchase time, but later in the first year of ownership.

 

[Peyote]

Interesting Peyote, it seems the discounts are different for different products. Thanks.

(like the name by the way. I'm in Tucson, AZ. We know about Peyote.)

Ironically, I've never taken it myself. I had my windows tinted in Tuscon last spring as I was driving to CA from Texas...there's a lot of neat stuff around there...we went and checked out the Biosphere among other touristy things.

 

[rueyeet]

Would it be ethical if i decide to join ADC and not using the discount. Joinning for the recources that ADC offers.

I'm no programmer and would thus never join ADC, but I will say that enabling a potential developer to be more involved with the Mac sounds like a worthwhile idea to me. Join up, you never know where things will take you.

 

[abhishekit]

asiananimal: you are a comp sci major, and you said specializing in software. You are ethically very correct to take the ADC. Thats what it is for, for students to encourage them towards being OS X developers. No one is rolling out app after app, before they take ADC.
I don't know about the discounts though, not a member.

 

[FlamDrag]

The student ADC membership sends along so many goodies that it'll inspire you to try to develop enough stuff to assuage any guilt. It's really quite a nice little program.

If you're the least bit interested in developing software or hardware for OS X, it's worth it.

 

[debo]

I've got a question about the adc store. When you click on powermac, it takes you to the models and underneith it says something like $500 savings on a 23" display. But the prices don't reflect this, and there is nothing on the page about this. Also, when you add them both to your cart nothing happens. What gives?

 

[Brian Haworth]

Probably a mail-in rebate.

 

[debo]

That's what I thought, but it doesn't say anything about it. Not in the fine print or anything.

 

[asiananimal]

The student ADC membership sends along so many goodies that it'll inspire you to try to develop enough stuff to assuage any guilt. It's really quite a nice little program.

If you're the least bit interested in developing software or hardware for OS X, it's worth it.

What kind of stuff do they send with the monthly ADC membership. Could you give examples...

 

[Grimace]

What kind of stuff do they send with the monthly ADC membership. Could you give examples...

You get a CD/DVD-ROM every month with various tools for developing software. X-Tools etc.

 

[themadchemist]

oh, get off this ethical thing! Of course it's ethical. You're a student who is a computer science major who wants a Mac. Take the discount, already!