Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!rutgers!apple!shebanow
From: shebanow@Apple.COM (Andrew Shebanow)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer
Subject: Re: TML Pascal II (Really: MPW Upgrade Cost)
Message-ID: <21723@apple.Apple.COM>
Date: 6 Dec 88 02:30:08 GMT
References: <1857@ndsuvax.UUCP> <32737@bbn.COM> <10245@umn-cs.CS.UMN.EDU> <1867@ndsuvax.UUCP> <1234@orion.cf.uci.edu>
Organization: Apple Computer Inc, Cupertino, CA
Lines: 35

The MPW 3.0b1 upgrade price is not excessively expensive: it
includes 14 or 15 disks and about 3500 pages of documentation.
It also includes an upgrade to MPW 3.0 final, which will give
you an entirely new set of disks, manuals, and even binders.

If you cannot afford the 3.0b1 upgrade, I recommend that you
wait until January when the final version will be available.
The upgrade price will drop signifigantly, and the software will
be less buggy.

As far as Apple's pricing for MPW goes, you need to understand
two things: First, MPW is not a profit center for Apple. We
provide it to developers because we want good tools to be
available, not because it makes us a lot of money. The price
you pay for MPW when you buy it from Apple helps to cover
engineering costs as well as manufacturing costs, but I
would be very surprised if the income from MPW sales even
came close to covering the budget of the Development
Systems Group (I haven't seen any figures though).

Secondly, we have to price MPW higher than most other
development systems, because we want to encourage 3rd
parties to write these types of programs. Even if Apple
could sell MPW for $150, we would be hurting companies
that we want to help.

Apple supplies companies like TML with a set of master disks
and manuals. These companies do their own duplication, and
what they charge to cover costs is their business. Just
remember that these companies don't have to pay the
engineers, writers, and managers who make MPW.

Andrew Shebanow

Disclaimer: these opinions are mine and not Apple's, etc, etc, etc.