.Mac Math, or How to Turn a $900 Customer into a $500 Customer

Accounting for $100 of the potential $900, I didn't renew my .Mac account. Some years ago, I immediately signed up for Apple's free iTools service. One year ago, I also paid the $50 for the transition to .Mac since I was sure that Apple would roll out something that was worth $50 to me. Turns out, they didn't.

I still think a future revision of Mac OS X and/or .Mac will make it worth the price for me. However, I'm not going to put up the cash to "wait and see". I can do that for free. None of Apple's renewal incentives appeal to me, and thus there was no penalty for letting my subscription lapse. Indeed, there's a bonus to procrastinating.

If I were to renew now and Killer New Feature comes out in seven months, my $100 only buys five months of use. However, if I allow my subscription to lapse and then renew if/when Killer New Feature ships, I get a much better ROI.

Okay, $100 down, $800 left to go.

There were two attractive options for renewing my ADC Select account: the plain $500 Select program and the $800 Select+ADC TV 15-pack bundle. For those of you who don't know, ADC TV are streaming QuickTime recordings of sessions presented at WWDC. It's a great way of quickly getting up to speed on something. In this case, Apple was offering access to 15 individual sessions recorded at WWDC 2003.

I was going to opt for the $800 bundle as I didn't attend WWDC 2003. However, this came after my .Mac math reasoning. So, I looked around. Turns out, this isn't a good deal at all, for two reasons:

1. The cost of renewing and starting a new membership is the same. I could simply discontinue my ADC Select membership for a few months, restarting it when I actually need it. Nowadays Apple has studly free online docs. So all I use my account for is software seeding, access to discounts and bug reporting. Well, I can defer restarting my membership until I'm ready to buy something, and I can file bugs via a free ADC Online account. Technical Support incidents are included in the price, but it's rare that I actually use them before they expire.
2. The cost of "bundle" is the same as the sum of individual components. Select is $500. ADC TV 15-pack is $300. The "bundle" is $800. There's no financial incentive for me to purchase now versus "just in time". So, I purchased Select alone and maybe I'll purchase ADC TV later on. (And we all know "maybe I'll buy that later" usually translates into "I won't buy that ever.")

So the potential $800 purchase falls to $500. But even that vastly lower amount was called into question when I went to make the purchase, and was confronted with this:

Terms
Please understand that Apple reserves the right to modify the terms, conditions, and policies of its developer programs at any time without notice, and to revoke participation in such programs at any time. No refund or partial refund of any Apple Developer Program's annual fee will be made for any reason.

You got that? You pay Apple up-front for a service as described today. Apple then is free to add or remove features of the service. Apple is also free to say "No Soup For You!", and revoke the entire program you've already purchased. At any time, or any reason. Oh, and no refunds, even partial. Don't let the door hit your ass on the way out.

This is probably just legal boilerplate, and Apple probably won't do anything like that. I'm banking on that probably, but it sure made me think long and hard before tossing Apple that measly $500.

Hint to Apple: you generally don't want to invite your potential customers contemplating the possible ways you'll screw them, prior to purchasing.

Update: Chris Hanson reminds me that new Select accounts don't get a hardware purchase discount -- that's reserved for renewing members only, unless you enroll under a special promotion. One well-placed developer hardware discount can easily pay for two years of Select membership, so that's a definite reason to renew instead of restarting.

Meanwhile, Ryan Wilcox relates two unmentioned benefits of .Mac and ADC Select. While the StickyBrain is a fine app, I did purchase it prior to being able to get it "free" from .Mac, so no win for me there.

One thing I need to clarify -- withstanding the tone above -- is that ADC Select membership is well worth its price. I already spoke to the hardware discounts, but there's also compelling software, service and WWDC discounts. Heck, I did the math on Premier and it would be a better deal than Select if I just burned more Developer Support Incidents per year. Considering the hefty price hike, that says a lot about both program's value.

Friday, October 10, 2003
12:00 AM