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Google I/O 2013 Registration Sells Out In 49 Minutes

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Re: Google I/O 2013 Registration Sells Out In 49 Minutes

#11

Post by objclxt »

Samuel_Michon wrote: post #9
bobz wrote: post #2

I'm pretty sure this outcome is exactly what Google wants. Hardest tickets to get in town, even with a $900 price tag. Why else would they continue to give away such great swag at an event with such high demand? On the up side, streaming basically the entire event for free does calm the righteous indignation to a degree. Still, it would have been nice to get a chance to meet and chat with other people working on the…

"I'm pretty sure this outcome is exactly what Google wants. [...] Why else would they continue to give away such great swag at an event with such high demand?" I agree. Giving away equipment worth more than the ticket price doesn't attract the right crowd. Apple has similar problems (lots of devs who want to come, but not enough space or manpower) but it at least seems to put in an effort to filter out the developers…

> Despite all that, last year WWDC was sold out in under 2 hours.

...and I'm willing to bet that if Apple announced the time WWDC tickets went on sale in advance, as Google do, it would sell out a lot faster.

Re: Google I/O 2013 Registration Sells Out In 49 Minutes

#12

Post by FlyingAvatar »

Three people (including me) from my team were attempting to get tickets. We were all on the page 30 minutes before opening and entered the queue within seconds of opening.

2 of us never got anything other than the looking for tickets page multiple times.

1 of us got to the payment page on one attempt only to have it fail.

It's frustrating that we should each spend 1.5 hours of time to babysit what is essentially a lottery.

If it's going to work like a lottery, then just make it one.

Re: Google I/O 2013 Registration Sells Out In 49 Minutes

#14

Post by Samuel_Michon »

objclxt wrote: post #11
Samuel_Michon wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"I'm pretty sure this outcome is exactly what Google wants. [...] Why else would they continue to give away such great swag at an event with such high demand?" I agree. Giving away equipment worth more than the ticket price doesn't attract the right crowd. Apple has similar problems (lots of devs who want to come, but not enough space or manpower) but it at least seems to put in an effort to filter out the developers…

> Despite all that, last year WWDC was sold out in under 2 hours. ...and I'm willing to bet that if Apple announced the time WWDC tickets went on sale in advance, as Google do, it would sell out a lot faster.

I doubt it. Just as with I/O, the ordering system is the bottleneck. If the systems could manage it, both events would sell out in mere minutes.

Recap of WWDC 2012 ticket sales: for the first time, Apple didn't pre-announce the WWDC dates or when ticket sales would start. People were quite upset because it was so sudden and because it was so early in the day – sales began at 8:30AM EST. Per John Gruber, on the day: "Sold out in two hours, before the U.S. west coast even woke up." http://daringfireball.net/linked/2012/04/25/wwdc-2012

Re: Google I/O 2013 Registration Sells Out In 49 Minutes

#17

Post by chadscira »

jimrandomh wrote: post #15

I was on the site at opening, got to the "looking for tickets" page, and never got further than that. I'm kind of pissed that they didn't price the tickets high enough to clear the market; I would've gladly paid more, but now I can't.

I was victim of this too, i even set my clock ahead and attempted to register 5 mins early (which was working as far as i could tell).

Re: Google I/O 2013 Registration Sells Out In 49 Minutes

#19

Post by chadmaughan »

BHSPitMonkey wrote: post #4
untog wrote: post #3

Given that 99% of the people I could see on Twitter were not able to get through to the checkout, 49 minutes feels like a relatively meaningless number. I suspect that if the system actually worked properly it would have sold out in 30 seconds.

From what I've been reading, it sounds like Google Wallet was really the weak link in the chain. A significant number of reports from people who were lucky enough to grab a slot indicated 5xx errors and other difficulties with the payment processing stage. If that hadn't been an issue, I think the sellout would have been reached a lot sooner.

Several people at my work had the same Google Wallet problem. Most of us had a $900 charge that was later cancelled. Ultimate tease.

This was my favorite tweet:

"Another year, another batch of developers who will be sure to never ever use +Google Wallet in anything they build. #io13" [1]

[1] https://twitter.com/seedifferently/status/311856162440093696

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