marmar@mtk.UUCP (Mark Martino) (05/13/89)
Our company just became a Mac developer about two months ago. This week I and another person in our company tried to contact Apple via the phone. Neither of us could get through all week. Then we found out that everyone was gone to a conference. I have been trying to promote the idea of being an Apple developer since I started working here and this does not make me look very good. I can't believe that nobody was there to take messages. At least Apple could have had a more complete message on the phone. I was really surprised by this because all of my previous dealings with Apple have been very good. They've always been responsive and helpful. Does this happen every year?
keith@Apple.COM (Keith Rollin) (05/13/89)
In article <432@mtk.UUCP> marmar@mtk.UUCP (Mark Martino) writes: >Our company just became a Mac developer about two months ago. This week >I and another person in our company tried to contact Apple via the >phone. Neither of us could get through all week. Then we found out >that everyone was gone to a conference. > >I have been trying to promote the idea of being an Apple developer since >I started working here and this does not make me look very good. I >can't believe that nobody was there to take messages. At least Apple >could have had a more complete message on the phone. > >I was really surprised by this because all of my previous dealings with >Apple have been very good. They've always been responsive and helpful. > >Does this happen every year? Mark, I'm sorry that your first endeavor to communicate with your newly acquired partners at Apple was met with with such failure. I can't say that it won't happen again, because we usually shutdown to some degree at least three times a year (for the WorldWide Developers Conference, and the Boston and SF Mac- Worlds. For the Apple II developers, this occurs for the WWDC and 2 AppleFests). Why do we do this? I can assure you that it's not to make you look like a fool to your employers. Basically, we do this so that we can provide as much of our services to as many developers as possible. Within DTS alone (which is not the group that answers the phones, though we are closely associated with them), there are about 40 people (about 20 Mac support engineers, 10 Apple II support engineers, and about 10 administrative and office support personnel). With about 10,000 Apple Partners and Associates to support, we find it very difficult to give the one-to-one support that many developers would like to have. We don't see this changing any time in the near future, so we take the tactic of giving one-to-many support as often as we can. This one-to-many support takes shape in several different ways. For instance, we often take time out (not all at once, though) to write sample code and Technical Notes. Recently, a lot of effort was taken to go over all of our past responses to developers in order to create the Q & A Stack. We also put a couple of man-weeks of effort into putting together Phil & Dave's Excellent CD, which you should be receiving soon. A lot of our time is also taken up by reviewing new products and documentation that Apple is working on to make sure that the concerns of developers and customers are taken into account. Finally, we make the effort to put on a strong appearance at major events such as the WorldWide Developers Conference, MacWorld, and AppleFest. For instance, at the recentely concluded WWDC, we had a debugging room that was open 4 hours a day. You could stroll on in and talk to an engineer about your problems, or even schedule an appointment with a specific engineer on a specific problem. All of this has been done with the welfare of the entire developer community as a whole in mind, and with that community's permission. About a year ago, when we started to focus more and more on the one-to-many type of support, we discussed this with large gatherings of developers at the events discussed above. Almost unanimously, they were in favor of seeing more technotes and sample code, and with meeting us in person at these events. We also look for- ward to these events, as it allows us to maintain the "developer mindset" and let's us understand the developer point of view by actually meeting them (you) face to face. I hope this explanation helps put you back on good standing with your co-workers and employers. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Keith Rollin --- Apple Computer, Inc. --- Developer Technical Support INTERNET: keith@apple.com UUCP: {decwrl, hoptoad, nsc, sun, amdahl}!apple!keith "Argue for your Apple, and sure enough, it's yours" - Keith Rollin, Contusions