Apple Annual Developers Conference to be Online-only
Apple Inc on Friday called off the in-person portion of its annual developers conference scheduled to be held in San Jose and said it would run the program entirely online in June because of coronavirus fears.
Now in its 31st year, WWDC 2020 will take on a new online format packed with content for consumers, press and developers alike. The online event will be an opportunity for developers to get early access to the future of iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS and tvOS. The company is expected to discuss iOS 14, changes to the iPad, and new health features for the Apple Watch.
Apple didn’t say when it would hold the conference, but said it would share more information in the coming weeks.
“We are delivering WWDC 2020 this June in an innovative way to millions of developers around the world, bringing the entire developer community together with a new experience,” said Phil Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. “The current health situation has required that we create a new WWDC 2020 format that delivers a full program with an online keynote and sessions, offering a great learning experience for our entire developer community, all around the world. We will be sharing all of the details in the weeks ahead.”
“With all of the new products and technologies we’ve been working on, WWDC 2020 is going to be big,” said Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering. “I look forward to our developers getting their hands on the new code and interacting in entirely new ways with the Apple engineers building the technologies and frameworks that will shape the future across all Apple platforms.”
Apple also announced it will commit $1 million to local San Jose organizations to offset associated revenue loss as a result of WWDC 2020’s new online format.
This is the latest event to be disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic. Google, Microsoft and Facebook earlier shifted their developer conferences to online formats.