Skip to footer

Google I/O sells out in less than an hour

Google is widely expected to show off new details of its Project Glass headset at the I/O developer conference in June. 

|
Reuters
Hugo Barra, director of product management at Google, unveils the Jelly Bean operating system at the company's I/O developers conference in 2012. Tickets to the 2013 I/O conference sold out in less than an hour.
  • By Matthew Shaer

At 10 a.m. Eastern, Google officially opened registration for its Google I/O developer conference, which will be held from May 15 to 17 at the Moscone Center, in downtown San Francisco. Less than an hour later – or 49 minutes exactly, by one estimate – the event was completely sold out. Last year, of course, Google I/O tickets vanished within twenty minutes. Still, 49 minutes ain't too shabby. 

So why is Google I/O such a big deal? Well, for one, even though the ticket price is high – $900 for members of the public, $300 for academic faculty and students, according to PC Mag – the gift bags tend to be worth the price of admission alone.

Consider, for instance, that last year, I/O attendees received a Google Nexus 7 tablet, a Google Nexus smart phone, and the Google Nexus Q orb. 

Meanwhile, this year, there's the matter of the Google Project Glass headset, which is expected to be the centerpiece of the I/O conference. Although Roger Cheng of CNET doubts that Google will actually be giving away free high-tech spectacles, he notes that "there are high expectations Google will wow the audience with new [Project Glass] features and apps." 

Back in February, Google announced it would allow Twitter and Google+ users to apply for a chance to test out Project Glass. But there was a catch: Even users who were selected had to pay $1,500 in order to pick up your test device and attend "a special pick-up experience" in New York, Los Angeles, or San Francisco. A listing for Google glasses subsequently appeared on eBay; it was quickly removed by eBay staff. 

For more tech news, follow us on Twitter @venturenaut.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Google I/O sells out in less than an hour
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Technology/2013/0313/Google-I-O-sells-out-in-less-than-an-hour
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe