I think his point was more that, when it's 7AM in PST, it's already 10AM in EST and ~3-4PM in Europe... that makes it hard for PST to "get the early jump" considering everyone else in Europe/America is most likely already awake...
It's going to be a tight squeeze - most of the hotel space is already filled in the city due to the US Open taking place over a superset of these dates.
Alternatively - this ensured everyone in the community got a ticket, because everyone was calling everyone to let them know that tickets were on sale. Not great for the isolated developer - but, with only 4500 or so seats available - somebody is going to be left out.
Edit: Okay - perhaps "everyone" is a bit of a reach. Let's just say there was a _bias_ towards people in the community, as their friends and colleagues started SMSing them and calling them to purchase tickets. Though, there will clearly be an east coast / european bias this year - perhaps that was deliberate?
I'm part of the west coast Cocoa/iOS community and only about ~10% of got a ticket (I work on Growl). Prominent devs from Square, Instagram, and other startups that I know didn't get a ticket that all have been going since 2006.
They picked the time in a way that it was night across the Pacific (where nearly no one lives). That way it was a bit late in Japan and a bit early on the West Coast.
The world doesn't start and end with the West Coast, especially not for Apple (and those on the West Coast are the best connected anyway, the most likely to learn quickly about the WWDC).
I don't understand why they don't offer a second class of "virtual tickets" where you get the same access to prerelease software and live streaming of sessions. As far as I can tell there are 3 "decoupled" reasons to attend wwdc: 1. Sessions and info, 2. Asking real apple employees questions, and 3. Meeting other devs/socializing.
I know lots of people that currently just do #3 without a ticket. Similarly #1 becomes possible for everyone after they release the videos. So really the only genuine reason to attend is #2 -- real deal access to apple devs. Under this perspective it seems less likely there would be such frenzied demand if everyone had a shot of viewing the sessions and getting the redacted info at the same time. It would also save a lot of people the need to buy a plane ticket and hotel on top of this already expensive endeavor, if all they want is to see sessions.
So basically, imagine something like a $500 virtual wwdc pass where you get a live stream, and a $1600 "Pro" pass where you get the perks of being there in person.
iOS6 should be quite an event - assuming everyone on iOS5 does the simple OTA update, it will be one of the biggest and fastest adoptions of a new OS ever.
I'm really interested in what new features might leverage that. To some extent, iMessage is the best example so far, instantly adding features to text conversations between iOS users.
I think this is the most likely. Apple is steadily pushing the iOS UI elements into the "wider" MacOS platform. This is evident from the last few changes to the Cocoa APIs and the recent requirements for Applications available on the Mac App Store. Desktop applications are increasingly going to be Appified.
Press can get (or at least request) a press badge that is keynote only. For those who can't get one, is there really $1600 plus expenses worth of value in blogging the event? Especially when all the usual suspects are live-blogging, the news comes out instantly, and the video is posted within a day?
Opening tickets at 5:30 PST is a huge dick move. I woke up to 3 text messages about WWDC tickets, jumped on my computer and found them all sold out. Now I'm probably going to have to spend twice as much for a ticket.
Based on some completely suspect math, having 1000 engineers available for the length of the conference "costs" apple ~40 million dollars in productivity:
I'd be almost willing to bet that because the cost is so insignificant to them, the WWDC ticket price is almost entirely meant to set a bar for the types of developers that Apple wants to attend the conference. Specifically, professional developers who make money from the Apple ecosystem, to which the ticket price is a pretty insignificant expenditure for the hopeful value that they recieve from being there.
I hear they made a rule internally that WWDC is supposed to pay it's own way. I certainly agree that it doesn't need to, but just thought you might find that interesting.
I think it's safe to say that the LACK of perennial rumors and leaked parts means last year's fall release is now a tradition and not just a one-time-thing.
Which is a bit of a conundrum. If the new iPhone were to be released in June, you'd expect there to be more noise on the channel by now. But if it's coming in October, it's far too early for new parts to be in production.
I suppose the most plausible explanation is that it's a button for a knockoff product.
How soon they forget! It wasn't an Apple 'special event', it was the perennial San Francisco MacWorld Expo, once the go-to event for Apple announcements.
Apple's moved on from MacWorld as a launch platform, and I wouldn't be completely surprised if Apple someday owned their own general-audience conferences – believing, as with retail stores, they should control the whole experience.
But MacWorld Expo shouldn't be written out of Apple history.
If anything at all there will be new Macs, coinciding with Mountain Lion and Intel's release of low-power Ivy Bridge CPUs (though Macs might be a bit too unimportant to warrant the big stage and Intel might not deliver on time or Mountain Lion may not be finished). The iPhone was moved to autumn.
It's possible that there are no new hardware products at all in the keynote (though maybe not likely), only a review of what Mountain Lion brings, maybe incldluding some new software (the aging iWork is desperate for an update) and a preview of iOS6. Remember: Apple used to have preview events for the next iOS early in the year. That did not happen this year, so they have to preview iOS6 at some point before they release it, likely together with a new iPhone.
An iPhone has never been released at a WWDC before. So no.
The WWDC (World Wide Developer Conference) is aimed at developers, so it's not the right forum for major hardware releases. I'm pretty sure the mainstream media won't be present.
