Re: WWDC 2003 TV DVDs
Re: WWDC 2003 TV DVDs
- Subject: Re: WWDC 2003 TV DVDs
- From: Karl Kraft <email@hidden>
- Date: Thu, 29 Jan 2004 14:26:27 -0600
On Jan 29, 2004, at 12:34 PM, Lance Drake wrote:
Hello XCode Developers and Apple Corporate Wonks,
Just another voice-in-the-wind chiming-in here, but my question is,
"At what point did Apple decide the development tools would be free
but the knowledge to use them would represent a profit-center?".
Let's look at the math. Anyone at Apple - please provide real
numbers or any other explanation to dispute these assumptions.
Last I looked there were thousands of pages of free info available from
the Apple web sites. The amount of stuff I get (and just about every
other developer can get) for free information, source code, and
applications from Apple each day, if I had to produce it myself would
probably cost in the 6 figure range. If you think this is some huge
profit center, then here is your chance. Start producing content of
the same value and undercut Apple.
Dev Support is not a profit center. If you are making your living from
OSX, then neither the DVDs nor WWDC is prohibitively expensive. IF you
aren't making your living that way, then you don't need either. Which
is why Apple also offers ala carte options and several WWDC videos for
free, along with scholarships/sponsorships for students.
And just to correct, the WWDC DVD set is $800. That's about $300 more
than what just the audio+DOC files from macworld expo 2004 are. This
is not an outrageous price by any means. Most of the sets that have be
resold on ebay have been less than $300.
Assume there are videos being taped in 20 different rooms. That
means you need twenty cameras and tripods, twenty people to man them,
twenty video tapes-per-hour and there are 10 sessions per day times 5
days of taping. So, you end up with the cost of twenty cameras, 20
man-weeks of labor, and 1000 hours of tape. That probably overstates
the case, but I don't wish to be accused of underestimating.
The WWDC videos are not a fixed camera pointing at the screen. They
have switching between the screen(s) content, and the speaker(s).
While not exactly LOTR, there is cost to that level of production.
Also your cost estimates are truly a dream. It's in a convention center
in CA. It's not like you can hire just any A/V company to do the
recording. You need to hire them from the Convention Center itself.
That is easily a 300 -1000 % markup. You can't just buy cameras and
bring them in, you need to rent them. And the rent is usually equal to
the cost of purchasing. You can't just hire someone to run the camera,
it's common for you to have to buy the "crew". That means video guy,
audio guy, mixer guy, electrician to plug anything in etc.
Your figures and estimates lack ANY basis in reality. Where did you
account for the cost of the actual 12 DVDs in the set? Where is the
cost of the Japanese translation?
The answer: My guess is that there's a baseball cap in some
marketing-director's desk that somehow plays a role in the creation of
the number '1200'.
Close but not quite. It's more along the lines of 'If we hand out all
the video for free, then fewer people will come to WWDC'. And the cost
for WWDC is mostly fixed. If only half the people show up, it just
reduces the count of lunches and little else. If WWDC dies, it hurts
all developers.
Are they trying to do force all developer's to fly to San Francisco,
rent a hotel room and attend WWDC? Not likely.
Why do people getting stuff for free and cheap always feel like they
are being persecuted?
If "force" really appropriate here? This is about as accurate as the
comment in an earlier thread about Apple being "liars" WRT WWDC
content. What horrible punishment or penalty is incurred if a
developer doesn't attend WWDC? Apple certainly might be encouraging
developers to attend, and that's to Apples benefit. But I've never
heard of a developer who was penalized for not showing.
It's like anything else in life. If the value is greater than the cost,
do it. If not don't. If you aren't getting that much value out of
early access to tools, meeting direct with the developer tools group,
one-on-one mentoring and help sessions. In depth help on your worst
problems, performance help, meeting with your peers and the overall
experience, then DON'T GO. It's not for you.
I haven't gone to WWDC in about 5 years, and even then I only went for
2 days. Schedule wise it was very difficult for me to do. Buying the
DVD's was a bargain this year. I only wish they would put it out
sooner for those of us who can't attend in person.'
Oh and I wish they made all the attendees sign a release so that the
DVDs included Q&A.
But, at the $1200+ADC Select membership price-point, in terms of the
number of developers who actually BUY the DVD package, I don't think
the DVD sales-effort is emulating a hotcake stand.
(cough) $800
It's not supposed to. WWDC-DVDs are not supposed to be a core product
like say, iPods. It's just a nice alternative.
So, what's the result? The DVD packages sit there on the Apple
shipping dock shelves and the developers sit in their chair, ignorant
of important developer information that might make them more
production or more technically sophisticated, and the products
available in the Apple software world do not enjoy the prosperous
growth they might.
A sure sign of the TV generation. The only way any knowledge can be
gained is buy watching it on the boob tube.
What do you think is being hidden from you exactly? Is there some
information that only those who have the magical DVDs know about?
Charging that much money for the DVDs simply further promotes the
institution of Apple's 'Secret Inside Club Of The Cool Guys'. What's
the point in doing that when Apple is teetering on the brink of a 5%
marketshare?
Then what is giving away developer tools, source code, documentation
and so on? How come no one on these groups crows about how that is
helping "build market-share?"
I would wager that blue plastic on the iMac has done more for
marketshare then any single feature ever put into any web site or
cocoa-application.
Well - those are my opinions - I hope to not have overstated the case
and certainly don't mean to offend anyone at Apple, but my thought is
this situation is the result of some less-than-reality-based
decision-making.
I couldn't have said it better myself.
--
K2 // Karl Kraft // email@hidden
To purchase it is not like spending money, but rather it is an
investment in the future, in a blow against the empire
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