writes his own
The advantage to Apple making its money on the hardware transaction rather than relying on software transactions for the majority of its money (though OS upgrades and pro apps and home-app upgrades and office productivity stuff and maybe now iTouch apps are for sale) is that Apple can ship top-quality developer tools to everybody who buys a machine or an OS copy, and the only effect is that Apple casts a wide net to get low-budget guys developing on the Mac.
Some of those guys turn dev hobbies into eventual job resumes, or go full-time commercial. I thought shipping the dev tools in every box was a masterstroke. Apple has seduced a huge slice of the developer community to working on Macs as their mobile (if not their sole) dev machines, so many open-source projects that once were a trick to get compiled and running on MacOS X now compile out of the box and work like a charm.
Apple's dev-friendly decision to give away the tools and the free ADC membership levels to allow folks access to various dev resources lowers the bar to those who would want to work on the platform. I note that the cost of working legitimately on MSFT's platforms hasn't done anything noticeable to thwart malware developers.
Apple might benefit from working with someone on a software development curriculum for school kids. Getting folks writing apps on Macs from an early age couldn't be bad for the platform :-) Back when I was in school, computer classes were about programming computers, not about sitting in front of bought software and learning to type and print or add columns of numbers. Apple might want to work to turn back the clock toward user empowerment and away from luser generation.
Glad to hear about the hardware sales. I'm wondering when to pull the trigger on my own. I'm thinking this year, but I'm not sure when. I'm thinking pro tower and a decent monitor.
Anyone got monitor advice? What camera should I use for iChat video?
Take care,
--Tex.
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