In a move that will come as a surprise to very few, Apple has announced that its annual WWDC event will be held online this year, citing the coronavirus outbreak that has gripped the world. No specific date has been mentioned for it yet, but we do know that June is the month in which the event will be held. Calling it a ‘completely new online experience,’ the company made it clear that the main keynote as well as the usual developer sessions will both be presented online.
Phil Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing, said, “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. 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.”
Apple’s WWDC has traditionally taken place in San Jose, California since the 1980s. But its absence this year will mean a big loss to the local companies that help organize the event. This is why the company has announced a commitment of $1 million to offset the associated revenues of those companies. Apart from details regarding the next iOS, you can expect the main WWDC keynote to also feature fresh information about macOS, tvOS, and watchOS.
Apple’s WWDC 2020 joins a long list of technology events that have either been cancelled or shifted to an online-only model. These include Google I/O, Facebook’s F8 and Microsoft’s Build. Events like MWC, E3 and GDC have already been shut down this year.