WWDC attendees get 2014 jacket, $25 iTunes gift card
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.
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.
Comments
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.
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.
Stil, a $25 GC seems like a very weak gift but I guess their reasoning was the 25th year anniversary.
I don't think so, I think those other shows are being overly generous/extravagant.
The amount of time & money a developer would invest in writing an App would completely dwarf the cost of a couple devices. So they have little value to anyone serious about coding. Likewise, a few hundred (or thousand) dollars worth of gadgets isn't nearly enough to entice me to switch platforms (or start development on another platform).
It makes MS and Google look good to those who know nothing about development, but from a real-world perspective they aren't much more valuable than a free jacket.
My issue is that they could have bought themselves their own $25 GCs. 60 of them! I guess the plastic has its own design but that's not exactly what I call a collectable. I would have rather seen something a little more memorable. A GC just feels like no thought went into it.
My issue is that they could have bought themselves their own $25 GCs. 60 of them! I guess the plastic has its own design but that's not exactly what I call a collectable. I would have rather seen something a little more memorable. A GC just feels like no thought went into it.
Yes, that's true. With a little thought it's often possible to come up with inexpensive gifts that still blow people's socks off.
Just not these socks…
Stlil, a $25 GC seems like a very weak gift but I guess their reasoning was the 25th year anniversary.
They've given away gift cards in the past. Great if you're a non-US developer who wants to set up an US iTunes account.
The "Super Swag" that Microsoft and others have been sort-of gifting to conference attendees is intended to provide an incentive and development test platform for what are typically new, struggling, or underperforming products. I imagine a fair number of these super swag items end up on EBay. I've always just given them away to colleagues or kids.
One negative side effect of the big ticket swag that I've seen is a greater competition within organizations to attend these conferences. I've seen this result in more higher ranked and less hands-on types who are levels removed from development snapping up the travel/training budgets for themselves to attend rather than sending one of their direct reports or individual contributors who are in the developer trenches. Kind of sad and detrimental to the purpose of a developer conference in my opinion. I'm all for rewarding and encouraging developers but big ticket super swag has the potential to corrupt the tone of the conference and invite politics into the mix. I'd much prefer that the swag be trinkets and mementos and the total value of the conference be concentrated on the knowledge transfer and early introduction to emerging technologies and platforms. I'd have to say that super swag has had a net negative effect on the conferences in terms of meeting the expectations and justifying the expense of attending. But that's just my personal opinion and I can understand other people's satisfaction with a conference being associated with their taking a new toy that they didn't have to pay for directly home with them after the conference is over or sucking up some easy cash on EBay.
On the other hand, WWDC developers will at least get some use out of a fairly nice-looking jacket and $25 to feed their iTunes/App Store addiction.
Aren't Google I/O and Microsoft Build only two day events? WWDC is over 4 days so I would expect it to be more expensive. As far as the gifts since when did this become some competition to see who can give out the highest priced gifts? I doubt the developers are attending WWDC for the free gifts.
There's also the fact that Apple has never felt the need to "buy" loyalty, which is what all these other companies desperately do. If you can afford a $1500 ticket to WWDC, as well as flight and accommodation costs, you're not going there for the purpose of free shit.
A guy I know that attends every Google I/O always sells everything afterwards.
I would have thought the embroidered lettering should be 6 point type, gray text on a gray background to fit in with Apple design guidelines.
There's also the fact that Apple has never felt the need to "buy" loyalty, which is what all these other companies desperately do. If you can afford a $1500 ticket to WWDC, as well as flight and accommodation costs, you're not going there for the purpose of free shit.
A guy I know that attends every Google I/O always sells everything afterwards.
There was a WWDC, maybe 10+ years ago where Apple automatically entered every attendee into a drawing to win a brand new top-tier Mac every hour (I think it was like a Powerbook model). The number attendees was really small, so I calculated that 20% of the developers got free computers. Steve himself drew the first two or three names during the keynote that year. I've seen the video on YouTube, but I CANNOT FOR THE LIFE OF ME FIND THE VIDEO. Google's search bubble thinks I want news about WWDC2014 (or spam about free Powerbooks) and won't serve up what I'm looking for. Anyhow, if someone can link the video, that would be appreciated, or I'll add it later if I can find it.
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.