AppleInsider Staff
Apple on Friday began sending out emails asking developers who were not selected in this year's WWDC 2014 ticket lottery if they would like to purchase passes that have gone unclaimed by those originally selected to attend.
According to multiple Twitter posts, developers who missed out on the chance to buy tickets to June's Worldwide Developers Conference are being asked by Apple if they would like to take one of the unclaimed slots.
It is unclear how the invitations are being meted out, though some developers have joked the process is like "round two" of the WWDC lottery.
When Apple sent out initial invitations to buy WWDC 2014 passes earlier in April, the company noted that developers had one week to complete their purchase. At the time, it was noted that reserved slots would be held until 8 p.m. Eastern on Apr. 14, though no mention was made as to what would happen with the unclaimed tickets once that date passed.
At this year's WWDC, Apple is expected to unveil the next-generation iOS 8 alongside a possible sneak peek of OS X 10.10, both of which are under development as seen by AppleInsider's traffic logs.
In addition, events scheduled for the yearly event include more than 100 technical sessions presented by Apple engineers, over 100 hands-on labs and other sessions for developers.
WWDC 2014 kicks off on June 2 at San Francisco's Moscone West. The opening "State of the Union" address will be streamed live via the WWDC website, while select videos and technical sessions will be made available online as the week progresses.
Charles Martin
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23 Comments
I understand that sometimes things come up all of a sudden and you can't go, but otherwise why would someone register and then not claim their tickets??? Makes no sense to me.
I bet some developers who were originally not getting one that were asked are feeling better now though.
Hmm... This is why I thought this new "fairer" implementation of the ticketing process was misguided. Developers who are serious about going should be served first. Obviously these extra tickets were reserved needlessly by developers who never intended to go or perhaps thought they would be able to sell their tickets.
They should go back to "first come, first served."
"first come, first served." Doesn't work well enough in my opinion when all the tickets sell out in around a minute.
[quote name="darwiniandude" url="/t/178684/apple-offers-unclaimed-wwdc-tickets-to-select-developers#post_2519047"]"first come, first served." Doesn't work well enough in my opinion when all the tickets sell out in around a minute.[/quote] It seems to work well for those who are "first" :D Here's the issue... there are always more people who want to attend WWDC than there are tickets for. What's the difference between the first 5,000 people who get tickets... or 5,000 randomly selected lottery people who get tickets? The end result is the same: 5,000 people get tickets... and some people don't.
[quote name="Michael Scrip" url="/t/178684/apple-offers-unclaimed-wwdc-tickets-to-select-developers#post_2519078"]What's the difference between the first 5,000 people who get tickets... or 5,000 randomly selected lottery people who get tickets? The end result is the same: 5,000 people get tickets... and some people don't.[/quote] Sure, it's still 5k people but the big difference is that there are 5k that didn't just happen to be up and at their computer reading tech news the moment it hit so they could be one of the 5k people to sign up in the first 1 minute and 11 seconds. ONE minute and ELEVEN seconds for 2013's WWDC. We can say both sets of groups are [I]lucky[/I], but is really an equal chance? Depending on where you are in the world you may never get a shot at attending WWDC because you're sleeping, you're at work or on your way to work, dealing with family, or other issues when Apple decides to go live on a day and time that isn't announced beforehand. That makes this new system considerably more fair.