A MacNN reader says that Apple is not offering 3rd party-tool vendors the same access to developers as in previous WWDC conferences: "Apple's friendliness to 3rd party tools vendors seems to have ended this year. You may recall at previous WWDC's, Metrowerks and other vendors (like Realbasic and Borland) were allowed to show their recent releases of tools, but Apple has decided it no longer wants to share the stage with other compiler makers." Apple introduced its new earlier this week and says it will ship the tools in September.

"This includes ending the special lunchtime sessions (where many a developer ran off with T-shirts) and the popular 'Birds of a Feather' evening sessions that was running for the past two years. They are relegated to the vendor booths, which ends Wednesday at 6:00PM."



"In talking with the folks at the Metrowerks (who were surprised at this sudden turn of events), they told me that they were not even allowed to be on stage at any session this year, as Apple has felt that their Project Builder app had constantly been shown up by CodeWarrior. This will be the first WWDC since 1995 in which Metrowerks has had no stage presence to announce their products."



"The folks at RealBasic seem to be taking it in stride, although still dissappointed at not being able to talk directly to the developers as they had in the past three years."

by MacNN Staff