ANTenna Blog -- Apple

One of the best investments I’ve made in Mac business technology is signing up for ADC Select. That’s Apple Developer Connection Select, a paid-for service that’s geared primarily towards software developers, but which provides tremendous value for any organization that’s deploying significant numbers of Macs.

Apple offers six levels of ADC support. There’s a free version, called ADC Online which everyone should sign up for. It doesn’t get you much, though you do get a newsletter and access to developer tools and SDK (software development kits).

The paid ADC programs range from a $99/year student membership up to a $3,499/year premiere level, geared toward professional software developers. If you are developing software for the Mac, at least one member of your team should have ADC Premiere. If you’re not developing software, it’s overkill.

For the bulk of Mac-friendly shops, the right level is the $499/year ADC Select. That’s what I have. It gets you seed versions of future Mac OS X and Mac OS X Server code, which means that you can begin evaluating them on test hardware.

The ADC Select level also includes two tech support calls, access to compatibility labs, and other stuff that you might not need, like business and marketing programs. Like I said, the ADC programs are targeted primarily at software developers. However, the price is a bargain when it gets you early access to important Apple technologies – as well as newsletters – that might affect future deployments.

Note: Those are all U.S. prices. The programs may be different outside the United States.