Smartphones and freebies spell success for Google I/O

Tickets for the Google I/O 2011 developer’s conference went on sale this week. Ever since the show was launched in 2008, it has always been popular. In 2009, tickets sold out in 90 days. In 2010 they cleared out in just 50 days. But this year’s rush was unprecedented; according to Google vice president of engineering Vic Gundotra, all 5,000 seats at Google I/O 2011 were claimed in just under an hour.

How times have changed! Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) has long been one of the hotter developer tickets around, but last year’s 5,200 seats sold out in eight days, not mere minutes. Meanwhile, Microsoft’s Professional Developers Conference (PDC) has faded somewhat as a “destination event” — where previous years saw it occupying the Los Angeles Convention Center, this year’s show was hosted at the company’s Redmond campus, with in-person attendance capped at 1,000.

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But does the flurry of activity around Google I/O really signal a sea change among developers? Are Google platforms and technologies — including Chrome, Android, App Engine, and Google Web Toolkit (GWT), among others — really becoming the preferred targets for today’s programmers? Maybe and maybe not. For a more accurate analysis of the app dev market, you’d be better off evaluating developer conferences based on their content, rather than their ticket sales.

It’s raining smartphones There’s one obvious explanation for Google I/O’s rapid ticket turnover: the freebies. At most conferences, attendees can expect to walk away with tote bags, water bottles, coffee mugs, T-shirts, and maybe a few tins of developer-themed caffeinated breath mints. But Google’s conference does giveaways with unprecedented style.

At the 2009 show, Google gave away a Google Ion, an unlocked developer version of the HTC Magic Android handset, to every attendee. The following year, it outdid itself. Ticket holders were given the option to receive either a Nexus One or a Motorola Droid by mail in advance of the show so that every attendee would have a working Android handset available from the moment the conference started. Google didn’t stop there; at the opening keynote, it gave every attendee an HTC Evo 4G, and many developers walked away from the show with not one, but two free smartphones.

Microsoft was obviously inspired by Google’s largesse because it gave away a free handset running Windows Phone 7 to every attendee of PDC 2010. On the surface this makes sense. Much like Android in 2009, Windows Phone 7 is still an unfamiliar platform to most coders, so seeding free handsets into the community might be a good way to jump-start an independent developer ecosystem. But because of PDC’s low attendance cap, Microsoft put only one-tenth as many phones into developers’ hands as Google did at Google I/O 2010. Were they really meant as developer tools or were they just free conference swag?

Nobody knows what Google plans to give away this year, but some kind of tablet device running Android 3.0 — also known as “Honeycomb” — might be a good bet. A session at Google I/O will highlight the new features, capabilities, and APIs of this latest Android release. If you see any developers on your floor salivating as Google I/O’s May 10 date approaches, it may be because they were among the lucky few to score a ticket.

Is this a conference or a raffle? While everybody likes presents, not everybody agrees with the approach Google I/O has taken in recent years. In fact, Justin Santa Barbara, founder of FathomDB, says he hopes Google tries a change of pace this year and gives away nothing at all.

It might seem silly to assume developers would line up for tickets to a conference because of the freebies, when the tickets themselves were selling for $450. But because the phones Google has given away have typically been unlocked developer models, their actual street value might exceed the conference ticket price — especially to gadget fiends who must have the latest and greatest. Add the fact that academics, including faculty and students, could get into this year’s show for $150, and one can see why even disinterested parties might register for the show in hopes of getting a free gizmo.

Santa Barbara goes so far as to compare Google’s registration process to “an unlicensed lottery,” where the main goal for prospective attendees is to win the game, not come away from the conference enriched or educated.

The other problem with making tickets to the conference such a hot commodity is that it inevitably invites scalpers. I’m sure we’ll see lots of tickets to Google I/O on Craigslist as the show date approaches, many of them selling at a profit. If those ticket sellers were lucky enough to be sent a free gadget in the mail before the show — as Google did last year — all the better for them.

Santa Barbara proposes that Google announce ahead of the conference that nothing will be given away, then offer a waitlist. Opportunists who were hoping to cash in on the freebies might then turn in their tickets, giving legitimate developers a second opportunity to attend the show.

Seeing past the hype Whether or not Google chooses to heed Santa Barbara’s advice, arguably the company wins either way. A conference that sells out in record time is great publicity. Each year, Oracle hosts a conference in San Francisco that takes over multiple city blocks; Google stands to gain similar press attention from a humble 5,000-seat event at the Moscone West convention center. (See? I’m doing it already!)

Registration for Google I/O is water under the bridge. What developers should concentrate on now is the content of the show. Based on what has been published so far, here’s a rough breakdown: six sessions on Android, four on cloud computing, four on Google Maps, three on GWT, two on Google TV, two on HTML5 and Web app development, and a few intriguing assorted sessions. How that lineup will fill out as the show schedule is finalized remains to be seen.

Whether Google I/O’s  focus appeals to you will naturally depend on what business you’re in. It’s important to note, however, that Google has made video and slides for all the sessions from past shows available online — you don’t actually have to win Google’s ticket lottery to take advantage of the educational content on offer. For all the hype in advance of the show, Google engineers really do have their fingers in many of the most important developer technologies today, and that should be the focus. If all you want is a new smartphone, try the local mall.

This article, “Smartphones and freebies spell success for Google I/O,” was originally published at InfoWorld.com. Track the latest developments in programming at InfoWorld.com, and for the latest business technology news, follow InfoWorld.com on Twitter.