The ongoing coronavirus pandemic has forced the hands of numerous tech giants to either cancel launch events or move to online launches. Earlier this year, the Mobile World Congress (MWC) was cancelled by host GSMA, and Google also scrapped its I/O 2020 developer conference. After that, we saw numerous launch events being held online including the Motorola Edge series, and OnePlus 8 series, among others. Even Apple soft-launched its anticipated iPhone SE 2020 recently without much fanfare.
Speaking of Apple, the Cupertino-based tech giant is known for announcing major software updates at its World Wide Developer’s Conference, which is usually held in June. The tech giant has now announced that this year’s Apple WWDC will be hosted completely online. Here’s what you need to know.
Apple WWDC 2020 details
Apple WWDC 2020 will be an online-only event due to coronavirus pandemic
As mentioned already, Apple is hosting this year’s WWDC 2020 completely online and it will be free to watch for 23 million registered developers in more than 155 countries and regions. The event will be streamed on the Apple Developer app and the Apple Developer website starting with a Keynote on June 22nd and will span over a week. As of now, it’s not known whether others will have access to the live stream. Apple is usually known for charging $1,599 for a ticket to attend WWDC but this year it’s free for all developers.
Apple also announced the Swift Student Challenge, which invites student developers to showcase their love of coding by creating their own Swift playground coding app. The winner of the challenge will receive an exclusive WWDC20 jacket and pin set. The deadline to apply for the challenge is May 18th, 12.30 pm.
Apple WWDC 2020: what to expect
Apple has not revealed any details about what to expect at the conference, and has announced that more details of the upcoming event will be shared between now and June 2020 on the Apple Developer website and email. The brand usually announces the next-generation iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS and tvOS at WWDC, and there have been instances in the past when the brand announced MacBooks and iPads as well.
This year, Apple is expected to announce iOS 14, iPadOS 14, watchOS 7, tvOS 14, and macOS 10.16 at the June 22nd keynote. iOS 14 is rumoured to bring enhanced multitasking, ability to try apps without downloading, wallpaper customisation and more. We should know more about other software updates in the coming days.
There are also talks of hardware launches like AirTags (Tile-like Bluetooth tags), new 23-inch Mac, iPad Air and more. As of now, it’s unclear whether these will be announced at WWDC or separately.