DEFINITION: SEED MONEY
DEFINITION: SEED MONEY
Sent: 6/8/96; 11:48:00 PM
From: HEIDI@AppleLink.Apple.COM (Roizen, Heidi)
Hi Mike: Dave Winer forwarded your question to me. This might help...
The role of Apple Developer Relations (ADR), the group that I manage, is to try to ensure that there is a rich business and technical proposition for supporting our platform, as well as to be the principal touchpoint between the developer community and Apple. We're made up of five parts:
Evangelism (Brian GENTILE) which manages relationships with the developer companies as well as technology evangelism
Technology Services (Garry HORNBUCKLE1) which manages the technical side of the equation
Developer Marketing (Jonathan FADER) handling the marketing side, comarketing programs, market research, and the various other programs we offer
Business Deveopment (TBH, HEIDI acting) covering licensing and other fundamental business transactions
International (David KRATHWOHL) providing developer relations support outside the US and Canada, in all the above areas of specialty
With over 11,000 companies in our portfolio of responsibility, we've tried to organize ourselves in a way that gets to real action and real progress with the fewest steps for both you and Apple, and systematizes things so we're not all just reinventing others' wheels. Admittedly, we're still in the building phase in every one of these areas, so we don't always have the necessary pieces in place, but we're working on it. This is probably the most frustrating part of my job right now... that there is much to be done between knowing what to do and doing it. Frankly, we just don't have the luxury of time, so we're trying to move as fast as we can.
Now for a word on the $20 million...
The Developer Marketing group under Jonathan Fader is tasked with building marketing programs that will benefit our entire developer community. (His group does not do any of the comarketing or bundling deals in which Apple is buying product, though his group can give you more information about the ones who do.)
As you have heard, Gil Amelio has allocated $20 million over the next 12 months, to help our developers get their products in front of customers. This money will be spent roughly half in the US/Canada and half in Apple's markets outside the US. We are working on programs now that will best leverage this money in both the traditional channel as well as in some emerging channels. The funding is likely to be split among channel initiatives, "virtual"/Internet initiatives, comarketing/collateral materials, and some pull advertising. In order to maximize the leverage, we aren't going to be looking at specific proposals from our developers, but rather to take their input and create a few standard programs that can either be shared by all, be "pay to play", or be targetted to particular segments of the market. Therefore, I would certainly encourage you to give ideas to Jonathan's team, and we'll keep you in the loop as the programs become reality, but I'm afraid that a specific proposal unique to any one developer is outside the bounds of what the money was for.
I'm trying to encourage Gil Amelio and the other powers that be at Apple to also look at specific, individual funding activities for business development, and I'm also trying to see if advertising subsidies like the one you suggest could be done effectively by us.
Hope that helps -- Heidi -------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Dave: As a developer, you are hopefully in a position to answer my question.
I don't really grasp what the $20 mill. earmarked for Heidi Roizen's uses means, practically speaking.
Does it mean that a developer can go to Apple and say, "Hey Apple, we want to do a print ad in Wired magazine, but can't afford it, will you help us pay for it?"
Or is it strictly 'nuts and bolts' development cost money?
Nevermind that Apple's advertising geniuses might ask, "Wired Magazine, why would anybody want to advertise in Wired magazine?"
Mike donahue@sover.net
|
This page was last built on Sat, Dec 14, 1996 at 8:25:58 AM. The messages in this site are responses to DaveNet essays. |