Macgasm

Today Apple dropped the price of their Mac Developer program from $499 to just $99. This 80% drop in price aims to accomplish more than just beef up the number of developers on the Mac.

There have been some changes to the new ‘low-priced’ one size fits all program. There are no more hardware discounts, except for those who are currently enrolled in the ‘Select, Premier or Student programs’. Anybody who enrolls now, and going forward, will not be eligible for a hardware discount. I think this is one of the reasons why the price has dropped.

The second change is the site itself. The old site looked outdated and was in definite need of a refresh. The new site looks cleaner and has a more sleek look, much like the update from Leopard to Snow Leopard.

Old Site

New Site

You still retain some items from the old programs, and this certainly includes the developer videos. This is probably the second coolest part of the Mac Developer program, and the videos are from both Apple’s WorldWide developer conferences as well as directly from Apple engineers, which is pretty cool.

You also still have the ability to get pre-release (beta) software. This includes upcoming releases for Mac OS, as well as Safari and some Software Development Kits. Below is the differences between the Mac Developer programs.

The price drop is obviously more affordable. But with this affordability comes more users to participate in creating Mac Applications. More developers means more applications, more applications means more users, more users means more potential iPhone developers and users.

I think Apple chose to drop the price, not only due to lower enrollment than desired, but also to entice the current iPhone developer community to transition solely from their iPhone OS platform to their desktop counterpart.

I also believe Apple is using this price drop to show it’s developers that Apple is still behind them, still willing to support them as well as help them in expanding their business.

We all know how popular the iPhone OS platform is for developers. I’m sure Apple knows that at some point their Mac OS X platform and iPhone OS platforms will merge, or become indistinguishable from one another and they will eventually only have a single platform, again.

A $99 developer program seems like a slam dunk in terms of generating more revenue for their pocketbooks. But it is a definitely a better value for developers, particularly those who, like me, get somewhat bored with their current applications and setup and want something new. If you’re interested in signing up and developing for the Mac head over to Apple’s Mac Developer site and sign up.