When in the World is WWDC 2009?
At the World Wide Developer Conference (WWDC) 2008, Apple unveiled the iPhone 3G, gave us a shipping date on iPhone OS 2.0, and introduced MobileMe during Steve Jobs’ Keynote . It was held June 9, 2008, a date announced (according to Daring Fireball) on March 13.
As many other conferences announce their dates up to a year in advance, giving travelers ample time to make plans and arrange schedules, even those scant 3 months weren’t exactly a comfortable amount of notice. Now, with the end of March already upon us, and not an announcement in sight, people are beginning to wonder: when in the world is WWDC 2009?
Apple is juggling a lot of balls this year, no doubt about it. iPhone 3.0 needs a shipping date, iPhone gen 3 may need an intro, and then there’s Apple’s next Mac OS, 10.6 Snow Leopard to put in the spotlight as well. Oh, and the Sword of Damocles currently dangling over Apple: the intended return of Steve Jobs in June.
Scheduling for any of those things, as Apple is likely pinning their Keynote on all of them, could be making things really tight for the teams involved, given the two possible dates we’ve seen thrown around the internet, May 16-22 or June 6-12.
Many of us just want our iPhone news. Developers, on the other hand, have their livelihoods and their families to think about. Could Apple get thousands of them to drop everything and show up in just under two months? Is under three months even realistic? Would you spin on a dime and make travel plans the moment Apple releases the date? Or have you already got your time share in the Caribbean lined up, WWDC be damned?
March 26th, 2009 at 1:22 am
I’ve been to WWDC 07 and 08. They were both great and very important for my work as a freelance developer. So I am on the edge of my seat to finally find out when WWDC 09 will take place. I think Apple’s secrecy about product launches is a fair and obviously effective PR and marketing tool. But when it comes to events that people need to attend in order to stay on top of things for their jobs, events that need travel plans and some time to tell customers “I won’t be available for a week”, secrecy is just annoying. So please, Apple, give us the date, and give it to us earlier next year.
March 26th, 2009 at 11:35 am
Apple is being indecisive about this announcement. When I ask myself why they would be indecisive about such a thing, I can only guess that there must be something holding up the announcement that Apple itself doesn’t know. I can think of two things: 1., how many people will attend if they have a bigger venue? Last year they sold out to capacity. This year they clearly have even more interest than before. On the other hand, the economy sucks. Where could they hold a bigger meeting and in this uncertain economy, how many developers could realistically attend? 2. What about Mr. Jobs’ health? Clearly he would like to attend, but he would like to do so as a healthy man. Is he on the mend and if so, when will he be able to portray himself as the healthy man he’d like to show? My guess is that one of these two things, or perhaps an uncertain deadline in development of Snow Leopard or some of its features is holding up an announcement. Something is uncertain at AAPL.