Apple wants you to develop products for use with their new Mini DisplayPort in mind. Now, they wont pay you for doing this, but the good thing is that they won't charge you either. Apple introduced their new Mini DP with their newest MacBooks and fancy pants new 24"LED Cinema Displays and is now offering no-fee licenses to anyone interested in creating Mini DisplayPort specific products.
The Mini DisplayPort is an Apple-designed miniature version of the VESA-approved DisplayPort, which totally supports the protocol and offers a more compact, and come on, admit it... cuter, connector. Apple has used a miniaturized versions of VGA and DVI on all previous MacBooks, some iBooks, and the 12" PowerBook G4. The first gen MacBook Air used a Micro-DVI connector. Apple is carrying on their compact tradition of DisplayPorts with this MiniDP but instead of solely dedicating it's use in notebooks, they want to carry it through to their entire platform, and the new 24" LED Cinema display uses the MiniDP as it's sole connection.
Apple wants what is best for all of us. Computer conformity, and hopes that other displays, vendors, and video cards will adopt the Mini DisplayPort. The no-licsense fee is a smart way to encourage vendors to do just that.
