On Friday, lucky recipients started receiving emails that they had been selected at random
in a ticket lottery to register for the company's annual
Worldwide Developer's Conference in San Francisco, which will start on June 8. The ticket lottery was required due to the incredible growth of Apple's iOS and OS X developer programs, which have nearly-instantly sold out over the last few years, and the company's desire to continue the conference at Moscone West, which allows for a total of 5,350 attendees, not counting press or the 1,000 Apple engineers who will be on hand.
The ticket lottery requires credit card information in advance, and winners are instantly charged the $1,600 fee -- and indeed, some developers have reported that this is how they found out that they had been selected. The conference offers a keynote with Apple's top executives, more than 100 labs and technical sessions, and hands-on help for developers to work closely with Apple engineers on development issues.
Attendees are expected to receive briefings on the changes expected in the forthcoming iOS 9 and OS X 10.11, and most of these events will be available for video streaming for registered developers who cannot attend. In addition, the company is expected to make some
hardware announcements around
or during the conference.
This year marks two minor changes to the usual procedure: Apple has announced it will
expand the number of free scholarships for students and groups aimed at encouraging more female and minority participation in the tech industry to 350, up from 200 in previous years. In addition, the company has announced a policy that
bars "selfie sticks" from being used during the conference as part of a general ban on audiovisual device usage for that purpose while inside the conference. The announcements of winners in the ticket lottery should be completed by Monday.
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