What do you get for the ticket fee? Do they give away free things like Google I/O? Will you build lasting networks of app developers? I wouldn't blame anyone for going just for the experience but I probably can't afford it for that alone.
What you used to get (so you have a basis of comparison):
1. Attend the sessions well before the videos come out.
2. Q&A after a session.
3. The only way to see the keynote.
4. Cheap jacket (backpacks, too, as I recall).
What you get now:
1. Session vids come out same day or very soon after.
2. No more Q&A.
3. Keynote is live streamed.
4. Same cheap jacket, just a different number (representing the year) on the back.
What you've always had, and will continue to get:
1. Access to the labs. Good if you have a problem that can't be answered in any other manner.
2. Networking with other devs over lunch and after-conference events.
If you don't need the labs, and aren't going to be all that social, save yourself $1600.
(EDIT: don't know who's downvoting you for asking a reasonable question. Have an upvote to offset it.)
Seems pretty simple, actually. Apple has stripped away anything away that might not be the best incentive to go to WWDC (both from your perspective as well as the perspective of Apple who only have limited spaces). The talks and keynote should never be a reason to go there since we have the technology to spread that to everyone without any loss in the process. Also, no silly valuable presents to reward participating for no reason in particular.
So only go if you have substantial and important questions to ask to help you solve some problem – and, as always (and unavoidably) with any conference, for networking. The cost is there to further encourage you not to waste that opportunity.
Apple doesn't give away free stuff at WWDC (besides incidentals like tee-shirts, jackets, and bags). WWDC is valuable for 3 reasons:
1. All the information. This has historically been very important, but Apple's getting faster and faster at putting out videos these days, so if you just want the sessions, you can save a lot of money by watching them from home.
2. Direct access to Apple engineers in the labs. Depending on your needs, this can either be irrelevant, or it can be priceless.
3. Networking. A lot of people at WWDC don't even bother going to a session every time slot and instead wander the halls talking to people (plus all the time set aside for socializing, such as lunch, after hours, and the few minutes in the halls between sessions).
The problem with the labs is that the slots fill fast and you end up waiting in line for hours behind developers asking the most basic of questions. I really wish they'd do two conferences — one for those new to the platform and another that would be a deep dive for the experienced devs.
Sometimes, the labs are completely useless anyway. I had a question about masking text glyphs to CGPaths with the new UITextKit stuff last year. I stood in line for an hour and a half to ask my question.
I sat down with an Apple engineer who did not have a firm grasp on the English language, and he pulled out his laptop and googled my question right in front of me. He clicked the first Stack Overflow post, saw it didn't have the answer I was looking for, and sent me on my way.
Words cannot describe the rage I had at that moment.
Was that an engineer, or an intern? Interns often staff labs, but they're usually taught that anything beyond an introductory question warrants seeking out the appropriate experienced engineer and introducing the developer to them. Heck, even real engineers who simply don't have expertise in the area know how to find the right person who does have the appropriate expertise.
Googling or using Stack Overflow to answer someone's question is simply wrong. Even if it was a really basic introductory question.
Normally you get a cheap jacket or backpack, and yes, lots of opportunities to make contacts with Apple developers at labs or people from other companies.
One year I was working on a kernel driver and I got acquainted with several Apple kernel driver developers during labs at WWDC. After the conference I could email them directly when I had issues. That was extremely valuable compared to going through Apple's official technical support incidents.
I also appreciate the question. As a follow-up: for anyone that can't afford going, what are some other side events you'd all recommend attending during/after WWDC?
I'm curious to see what new stuff Apple has to offer.
I'm not entirely sure why pretty much every piece of Apple marketing these days involve short, staccato sentences of incomplete "sentences", but it's really annoying.
For some places you may be able to transfer that room to someone else without having to pay any cancellation fees. I've looked at doing that for conventions in the past where I wasn't 100% certain I was going to go, but somehow managed to get into a good hotel for cheap with the housing block.
EDIT: An example of how to deal with this. Say you can't go, but know someone who can. Coordinate with the individual to contact the hotel. Tell the hotel reservation manager that you're wanting to transfer the reservation to another name/CC. Have the second person contact them (likely need your reservation # that you originally got) and give the hotel the info (like CC, name, address). You can contact the hotel afterwards to confirm that the transfer has occurred and that you're no longer on the hook for the room.
This is also a useful trick for getting out of leases early. They transfer the lease to the new person's name and you don't have to break it.
That'd be a good idea. I've never (and won't again, not an Apple dev) attended one of these, are there official forums? Housing block for the hotels near the conference? If there's an official housing block it maybe easier, there should be a group managing it that you can contact directly. If you need a room, get put on a waitlist, if you have a room they'll offer it to those on the waitlist. Official forums or very popular industry forums would be great places to host this discussion because it'd have the greatest chance of reaching the audience that needs the rooms. (And HN would likely count as a popular enough forum, but with no subforum concept it'd last a day or two and then fall off the front page.)
Since phones have clocks on them isn't a watch really just a fashion accessory now? What makes it more likely than any other wearable computer? I guess I'm just not sure if watches are a big enough market for Apple. They seem kind of niche now because I bet if you polled people who have iPhones there's only a small percentage that want to bling the brand on their wrist like that.
My parents for example both have iPhones, but neither of them would wear a watch unless it really had some extra special usefulness. What is the killer feature? I feel like the Pebble has proven that the killer feature is not that obvious because a lot of Pebble users say they stopped wearing it.
I wear a Fitbit. I feel like I was incepted in to wearing a watch - I never wore one before. I thought I was buying a device that tracked my daily fitness but what I ended up with was a watch that has to be recharged weekly and tells my friends how lazy I've been.
I highly, highly doubt WatchKit is going to make a surprise debut at WWDC this year.
Much more likely is that we'll finally see an Apple TV SDK. If there is an iWatch this year, my money is on it starting out as a "hobby" just like the Apple TV did (and is presumably about to graduate from).
oh good. Now I can wear a $800 iWatch on my wrist while holding my $800 iPhone in my hand and my briefcase carrying my $900 iPad in my other hand. Can you imaging how annoying it will be to receive iMessage alerts on all 3 devices at the same time. Not to mention my MacBook Pro which will also sound the alert.
