This Story Posted:
December 9th
1:52 PM/CST

 
 

Wednesday, December 9th

Apple Reaches Out To Student Developers
[1: 52 PM] Apple has introduced a program aimed at student developers. The program is called The Apple Developer Connection (ADC) Student Program and is designed to put the tools that students need to develop great Mac apps in their hands. According to Apple:

"As part of the program, participants receive a Student Orientation Kit which includes a customized Tools Sampler CD. The CD contains essential software for developing great Macintosh and Internet applications, including full versions of CodeWarrior Academic for Java from Metrowerks Corp., and Macintosh Programmer's Workshop from Apple. The CD also contains demo versions of 4th Dimension from ACI US, Inc., BBEdit from Bare Bones Software, Inc., AppMaker from Bowers Development Corp., CodeWarrior Lite from Metrowerks, Installer VISE from MindVision Software, REALbasic from REAL Software, Inc., MachTen CodeBuilder from Tenon Intersystems, and Tools Plus libraries + framework from Water's Edge Software.

The program also includes a subscription to the Apple Developer Connection student mailing; discounts on developer events, including Apple's annual Worldwide Developers Conference; as well as special deals on tools and developer-related materials from Apple and third parties, such as MacTech magazine.

Students around the world can join the ADC Student Program today via Apple's website (http://developer.apple.com/programs/students.html). The cost of the program is U.S. $99 per year. Students who sign up before January 31, 1999 receive U.S. $10 off the standard annual fee, and the first 100 students to sign up receive a copy of FileMaker Pro Developer Edition from FileMaker, Inc."

If you are a student, go sign up! More details are available at the web site.

The Mac Observer Spin: This represents an incredible example of Apple Thinking Different. While Apple has long been a part of higher education, that involvement was almost always limited to the institutions, and not the students. In the last 18 months, Apple has actually lost some ground as many of the scientific applications out there have ceased development of their Mac versions.

As important as being involved with Universities is, it is far more important to get young people programming on the Mac. Little programmers grow up to be big programmers and for most of recent history, those little programmers have been fed from the Wintel table. This move by Apple puts many of the necessary tools in the hands of those that need them to start. The fee may be a little bit high, but it will be affordable to most of the students that may be interested.

Apple next needs to aggressively market this new package to as many potential Mac programmers as they can. This will serve not only to spread word of the program, it will also show programming students that Apple is interested in them. With Apple's mostly poor record of helping developers (before the time of Heidi Rosen and the current team under Steve Jobs's direction), this message could do much for Apple's image.

Lastly, and this is important, Apple should also extend the offer to high school students. High school students are more involved in programming than at any other time in history, and showing an interest in these kids could do much for Apple's long term efforts to secure more Mac development.

Added to the many other developments in the Mac world over the last 16 months, the situation just keeps on getting better. Apple proves again and again that it knows how to do what it exhorts its customers to do, Think Deifferent.

Apple - ADC Student Registration