Apple has sent out an email to developers informing them that they have until March 31 to return their leased Developer Transition Kit (DTK) Mac minis, Apple Insider reports. When they do return the computers to Apple, they will receive a $500 one-time-use code which can be put toward a new Apple product—not including a gift card or AppleCare.
Developers paid $500 to lease the special Developer Transition Kit desktop Macs back in 2020, after Apple announced the DTK Macs’ availability at that year’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC). They were intended to help developers prepare apps for the transition from Intel-based Macs to Apple Silicon M1 Macs, sporting Apple’s own-designed chips.
DTK Macs Were a Preview of Apple Silicon
“Now that the new MacBook Air, Mac mini, and MacBook Pro powered by the Apple M1 chip are available, you’ll need to return the Developer Transition Kit (DTK) that was loaned to you as part of the program. Please follow the instructions below to return the DTK, at no cost to you,” Apple writes.
The DTK Macs do not run Apple’s M1 chips, as featured in the latest Mac mini, and MacBooks. Instead, they feature Apple’s A12Z Bionic chip, the same chip found in the fourth generation 2020 iPad Pro. This meant that, in essence, the DTK Macs are macOS-running iPads stuck in the body of an iPad mini.
At the time, Craig Federighi, Apple’s VP of Software Engineering, told Daring Fireball’s John Gruber that the DTK Macs were a preview for what Apple Silicon Macs may look like. He noted that they were “not a basis on which to judge future Macs … but [instead to give a sense] of what our Silicon team can do when they’re not even trying—and they’re going to be trying.”
Apple Bolsters Return Dollars
At the time Apple announced the DTK Macs, it said that the lease would last for one year. Instead, it is closer to nine months, based on the March return date. Initially, Apple upset developers who had paid to lease a DTK Mac by not just asking for it to be returned early, but offering only $200 in credit. Apple later acquiesced, and agreed that it would pay $500.
While this does mean that developers have, essentially, gotten a free year with a special edition Mac, their work benefits Apple. That’s because it meant that, by the time the first M1 Macs arrived late last year, there was already a robust ecosystem of apps which had been optimized for Apple Silicon.