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Apple Ups DTK Mac Mini Return Credit to $500 After Developer Complaints
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You never know if this was intended.
There are two possibilities:
1. This was an actual fXckup and someone lost his/her job over this.
2. They actually tried to save some money, and willingly risked a shXtstorm, but had the updated offer in their backhand (they raised a lot of money in a very short period of time — I don‘t think so), and now look generous with the 500$ credit. Had they offered 500$ in the first place, people would have complained, too.
3rd party developers are worthless without a healthy platform. It's a mutual relationship. Why should developers be the dominant players and be able to demand free stuff?
macOS developers wouldn't be a vibrant community of developers if it weren't for Apple building a healthy platform. It's a mutual relationship.
this is proof that some developers are just too self-entitled to things.
"I should be served a new Mac mini on a silver platter without asking" is a bit too self entitled. Apple never promised one in the first place.
A company with $200B in excess cash shouldn’t really care what the cost is on this, considering how important the transition to AS is to their future.
Yeah it should’ve been more like a deposit anyway.
Apple doesn’t need to be getting greedy with Mac developers of all people. They are many of the same people who have been working on Mac software when nobody else was since the dark ages. They need to keep Mac devs happier since there are hardly any. If it were me I’d save the credit for the new 16” MacBook Pros. Those things are gonna be beasts. I’m going to buy the second gen.
Apple doesn’t need to be getting greedy with Mac developers of all people. They are many of the same people who have been working on Mac software when nobody else was since the dark ages. They need to keep Mac devs happier since there are hardly any. If it were me I’d save the credit for the new 16” MacBook Pros. Those things are gonna be beasts. I’m going to buy the second gen.
That's like saying: they should just spend $10B to send 1 free Mac mini to all 20 million developers because they'll still have $190B left over, right?
We have no idea how many DTKs were shipped. And sending free stuff out willy nilly sets a dangerous precedent where developers will time and time again demand free stuff.
I agree with the first paragraph, but you absolutely lost me with the second. Both of those things have been fixed. Modularity with the Mac Pro again, and butterfly keyboards replaced with a redesigned scissor key. Plus then you switched from developers whining to the entire community. Then back to developers.
Those things should have been complained about, but they were complained about. And then fixed. And both Apple and the consumers are better for it.
Apple’s new tricks for making people feel how generous Apple is.
Crazy that Apple decided to low-ball developers in the first place.
$200? Come on.
$200? Come on.
Good move by Apple. The initial offer was lame but not as lame as the excuses many users apologetically made here, defending Apple and attacking the developers.
A company doesn’t get to have that much cash without thinking about costs.
Are you not a little above yourself.
Apple provided a number of options moving forward with AS. 1. They worked with 'Major' developers, to ensure that they were on board, 2. They then offered options for small 3rd party developers for the following reasons. a, to beta test the OS with the new M1 chip and b, to allow them to have an early opportunity to develop their own apps. 3. They provided Rosetta 2 for the rest.
Apple has, and will survive without all the little players, they obviously saw that Developers were unhappy, clearly discussed it in house, and then made a decision. It won't follow that this is a precedent, they could have simply said nah; tough cookies. Developers aren't what makes the Apple ecosystem evolve, it's the users. It's incumbent on those that develop apps for iOS and iPadOS to develop for macOS, and as so few solely develop of macOS, very little to whinge about.
I sure hope developers are as accommodating when I don’t like their prices.
Well, the initial action was simply not thought about much, I suppose. I sincerely doubt that there was much consideration about the bottom line or the optics of it.
Bringing back the DTKs makes sense for everybody involved, as the machines in the market are so much better. Every serious developer hasn't used the DTKs anymore anyway. The rest of the bunch was certainly causing relatively high support efforts at Apple that would better be spend elsewhere.
Probably they would have gotten away with a 300$ refund valid until the end of the year, if they would have offered it in the first place. Of course after their initial error they had to make sure that now there is nothing to complain about ;-)
The 200$ until end of May was a) a tad cheesy and b) badly timed, as most developers are obviously waiting for the 16" laptops before buying, so any discount on the current machines is of limited use for them.
Never assume bad faith if stupidity will do.
Bringing back the DTKs makes sense for everybody involved, as the machines in the market are so much better. Every serious developer hasn't used the DTKs anymore anyway. The rest of the bunch was certainly causing relatively high support efforts at Apple that would better be spend elsewhere.
Probably they would have gotten away with a 300$ refund valid until the end of the year, if they would have offered it in the first place. Of course after their initial error they had to make sure that now there is nothing to complain about ;-)
The 200$ until end of May was a) a tad cheesy and b) badly timed, as most developers are obviously waiting for the 16" laptops before buying, so any discount on the current machines is of limited use for them.
Never assume bad faith if stupidity will do.
I’m confused. Don’t devs make money on their apps on apples platform? Also, does it seem far fetched to invest dollars into their business buy purchasing a product they develop their money making apps for?
Asking for a Friend.
Asking for a Friend.
It's not far fetched to spend a lot, specially when using paid libraries, but here's a comment from a supposed dev from reddit on their experience. Some had to buy their own m1 mac because the DTK was unusable.
Right on! I must say I’m a little jealous of the $500 off even an unreleased M1... but hopefully I’ll get to see some incredible apps/development come from this and I’ll get over it. I just hope this goes a little ways to helping the developers out. I don’t entirely understand all of the complaints & issues, but given the consensus, I’m sure it’s warranted. It seems to me that you should keep your devs happy at all costs. Lol
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The original cut off of May probably tells us that new Macs will drop in June at WWDC.
: If it's not a PR problem, it's not a problem.
Apple should be paying developers to dabble with their beta hardware and develop software for their platform.
It’s not like MacOS is the dominant global OS. Not by a million miles. It’s grown sure. But again it’s just not. And also iOS is not the dominant mobile OS. Android still has that crown.
Apple is a very wealthy company that makes a ton of money off everyone and everything. Sure they aren’t a charity, but really to even consider offering a mere 200 bucks vs the now more minimally appropriate 500 was just insultingly cheap of them.