Apple today bowed to the inevitable, announcing that its 31st annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC 2020) will be a digital-only online event, instead of the traditional gathering that took place in previous years. The Cupertino firm moved the event to an online-only event due to the ongoing COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.
Apple says the online event will be an opportunity for millions of creative and innovative developers to get early access to the future of iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS and tvOS, and engage with Apple engineers as they work to build app experiences that enrich the lives of Apple customers around the globe.
“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 will hold an online keynote to unveil new software – including iOS 14, iPadOS 14, macOS 10.16, tvOS 14, and watchOS 7. The company could debut new hardware at the event, but it traditionally focuses on introducing the new operating systems and their features.
Apple will make developer sessions and new information on the upcoming operating systems available on the WWDC app, as well as the Apple Developer website
Additional program information will be shared between now and June by email, in the Apple Developer app, and on the Apple Developer website.
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.
Apple is merely the latest tech firm to cancel a major event, as Facebook’s F8 and Google’s I/O developer conferences have also been canceled due to the outbreak.