The COVID-19 outbreak has forced Apple to turn this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) into an online event.
This is when Apple traditionally unveils its latest updates to iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and watch OS, but this year’s announcements will presumably be limited to a web stream and/or press releases on its official website.
It isn’t clear how well the conference’s sessions, hands-on labs, consultations, and get-togethers will work in a digital format, but Phil Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing, says that it’ll be a “full program.”
“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 Schiller. “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,” added 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 have more information on the event in the weeks ahead. Meanwhile, the company will be committing “$1 million to local San Jose organizations to offset associated revenue loss as a result of WWDC 2020’s new online format.”