Daniel Eran Dilger
Today is opening day for WWDC, and San Francisco's Moscone Center is full of international developers registering for the conference, most of whom are now emblazoned with the black "WWDC 2014" jacket is giving attendees, along with an iTunes gift card.
Apple is using PassBook passes to register attendees, who are then assigned the same hard plastic ID barcode badge as last year, along with the black polyester spandex jacket and a $25 gift card redeemable in iTunes.
The registration gifts Apple offers the Ds of its WWDC are far less valuable than the expensive electronic devices Google and Microsoft have handed out to their developers at their own events.
In 2012 Google IO attendees were given a Samsung Galaxy Nexus phone, an Asus Nexus 7 mini tablet, a Nexus Q Google TV device and a Samsung Chromebox web-PC. Last year, Google gave attendees a Chromebook Pixel high resolution HTML laptop.
Microsoft similar gave its 2012 Build attendees a Nokia Lumia 920 phone and a Surface RT netbook device, then followed up in 2013 with a Surface Pro and an Acer Iconia W3 Windows 8 tablet, and this year gave attendees an Xbox One and a $500 gift card.
The big difference is that Apple's developers have a viable platform to code for, and a vibrant audience to sell their apps to. Notably, nearly all of the gear Google and Microsoft have given away in previous years is now virtually obsolete.
Google doesn't even offer an update to its latest Android 4.4 KitKat for the Galaxy Nexus, while the Nexus 7 was plagued with severe hardware and software issues throughout its lifetime. The Google TV "Q" was also a major flop.
Microsoft's Surface, Windows 8 and Windows Phone have also similarly gone nowhere.
Andrew Orr
Amber Neely
William Gallagher
Christine McKee
AppleInsider Staff
50 Comments
Are the conference prices for the events similar? Obviously Apple has a more viable platform, but if Google and MS are charging more to account for the handouts then the comparison is moot.
*0* that gift card!! I'd buy a used one with 0 balance off ebay if the chance arose. It's beautiful!! (some crazy Apple fan would probably outbud me by $1000)
Still have my '89 shirt & badge.
Apple's new retail hire ;-)
That jacket looks nice but I want to know that Apple's supplier didn't use [I]conflict cotton[/I]¡ That seems suspiciously missing from this supplier responsibility page: [LIST] [*] https://www.apple.com/supplier-responsibility/ [/LIST] [quote name="Masteric" url="/t/180404/wwdc-attendees-get-2014-jacket-25-itunes-gift-card#post_2543613"]Are the conference prices for the events similar? Obviously Apple has a more viable platform, but if Google and MS are charging more to account for the handouts then the comparison is moot.[/quote] I know Google I/O is significantly cheaper than WWDC for general admission, but it's also designed differently so you can't do a direct comparison in cost. Also, as noted in the article those HW gifts were not market successes which means Google being able to write off the MSRP of each for each attendee is probably more revenue than they would have otherwise received. Stlil, a $25 GC seems like a very weak gift but I guess their reasoning was the 25th year anniversary.