WWDC 2013 Dates Announced, Tickets Sell Out in 2 Minutes

At long last, Apple has announced the 2013 Worldwide Developers Conference will take place from June 10th through 14th in the Moscone West conference center in San Francisco. Mac and iOS developers look forward to this yearly opportunity to learn from — and pose questions directly to — Apple engineers. Anticipation is so high that sites like the WWDCBlast service were set up to notify people when tickets became available (see “Get Notified of WWDC Registration Opening,” 9 April 2013).

Unlike previous years, when the $1,599 tickets went on sale at the same time as the date announcement, Apple opened its ticket availability the day after the announcement, on Thursday, 25 April 2013 at 10 AM Pacific time, giving all developers warning of the opportunity to click the Reload button repeatedly in an attempt to purchase tickets.

However, even the swiftest clickers may have ended up empty-handed. This year’s event sold out within the first 2 minutes, an order of chronological magnitude faster than last year, when it took a full 2 hours (the previous year sold out in a sluggish 10 hour span).

Several developers report that Apple is giving a second chance to a few of those whose transactions didn’t go through properly. For those who aren’t so blessed, one bright spot is that Apple will again post session videos during the conference. However, sessions won’t be streamed live, and Apple has not indicated how long it will be before session videos become available. And Apple hinted that it will offer regional events; a note on Apple’s developer site reads,
“We’ll also be hitting the road this fall with Tech Talks in a city near you.”

As a number of developers — including Daniel Jalkut and John Siracusa — have noted, Apple needs to rethink WWDC if the demand for tickets so outstrips the supply.

Others have responded by starting a new conference to make a space for those who couldn’t get a ticket. AltWWDC will offer all comers a free and open alternative during the same days as WWDC, at the San Francisco State University campus a block away from Moscone Center. Although the schedule is still being developed, speakers already include a number of well-known names in the Apple technical community.