Apple requests return of Apple Silicon Developer Transition Kits, offers $200 toward purchase of M1 Mac

Apple on Wednesday said it will soon request developers who took part in the Universal App Quick Start Program to return their Developer Transition Kit, a custom Mac mini powered by an A12Z Bionic system-on-chip.

The company in an email notified developers that it will "soon be time to return" the DTK, hardware issued to prepare app makers for the release of Apple Silicon Macs.

"Now that the new MacBook Air, Mac mini, and MacBook Pro powered by M1 are available, it'll soon be time to return the Developer Transition Kit (DTK) that was sent to you as part of the program," Apple says.

Fitted with an A12Z, the Mac mini was equipped with 16GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD, two USB-C ports, two USB 3.0 ports, HDMI 2.0 and Gigabit Ethernet, trappings designed to mimic the first M1 Mac computers. It came loaded with a beta version of macOS Big Sur and Xcode 12.

Developers accepted into the Universal App Quick Start Program were charged a $500 fee for access to the DTK. Apple is not refunding the $500, though it is offering a $200 promotional code that can be used toward the purchase of a new 13-inch MacBook Pro, MacBook Air or Mac mini equipped with an M1 chip. Codes will be sent out upon receipt of returned DTKs and must be redeemed by May 31, 2021.

Some app makers are not pleased with Apple's compensation structure. As noted by Steve Troughton-Smith, $200 doesn't cover a third of the cost of Apple's cheapest M1 Mac, the $700 Mac mini.

TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS? That doesn't even go a third of the way towards the cheapest M1 Mac. It just about covers the 4 months the DTK was usable out of the 12 month lease you paid for
— Steve Troughton-Smith (@stroughtonsmith) February 3, 2021

Apple says developers can expect to be contact in the next "few weeks" with instructions on how to return the test box.

58 Comments

coolfactor 2333 comments · 20 Years

About 3 years ago

elijahg 2823 comments · 18 Years

Seems a bit weird to not just let them keep it. $500 for a year is pretty steep. It's not like Apple is going to use them, they'll go in the bin.

coolfactor said:

The fact that Apple is returning nearly one half of the original fee is more than generous, i say. Again, how can someone complain about this? It's a gift.

Hardly. Apple offered a "free" iMac in exchange for returning the Intel DTK. And those iMacs were $1699 at release, whereas the DTK was $999. But of course that was Steve's developer respecting Apple, not Cook's profit profit profit Apple. Remember without these devs, macOS wouldn't have anywhere near the appeal it does now.

Xed 2875 comments · 4 Years

elijahg said:

Seems a bit weird to not just let them keep it. $500 for a year is pretty steep. It's not like Apple is going to use them, they'll go in the bin.

coolfactor said:

The fact that Apple is returning nearly one half of the original fee is more than generous, i say. Again, how can someone complain about this? It's a gift.

Hardly. Apple offered a "free" iMac in exchange for returning the Intel DTK. And those iMacs were $1699 at release, whereas the DTK was $999. But of course that was Steve's developer respecting Apple, not Cook's profit profit profit Apple. Remember without these devs, macOS wouldn't have anywhere near the appeal it does now.

Your argument is that Cook's Apple is only about "profit profit profit" but right before that you question why Apple would even bother with an assumption that these devices will end up in a bin so Apple is both losing money on giving $200 per DTK and paying for it to be shipped back and processed by Apple. So which is it?

narwhal 126 comments · 6 Years

coolfactor said:
The fact that Apple is returning nearly one half of the original fee is more than generous, i say. Again, how can someone complain about this? It's a gift.

Just out of curiosity, are you a small developer who ported his apps to Apple Silicon using the DTK, and is now faced with going without an Apple Silicon machine for a month? I have to PACK UP my DTK, wait for apple to issue a coupon, then order an M1 Mac mini (wait time is 3 weeks now for 16 GB version). It would make a LITTLE more sense if we could replace the mini before sending it back; but going a month without an AS dev/test machine is CRAZY!