WWDC – aka Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference – takes place every year in June, and it will happen again in June 2020. But this year it will be different.
On 13 March Apple announced: “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.”
Many will be relieved that Apple isn’t going to cancel WWDC this year because of the coronavirus outbreak, but the change will still cause losses to local businesses who had planned for an influx of visitors. Apple is going some way to mitigate this with the following promise: “Apple also announced it will commit $1m to local San Jose organisations to offset associated revenue loss as a result of WWDC 2020’s new online format.”
You can read more about the decision here: WWDC goes online only, due to coronavirus fears.
What is WWDC?
It’s an event for developers, and therefore it tends to be a software-focused event. You can expect Apple to demonstrate updated versions of the macOS, iOS, tvOS, watchOS and iPadOS operating systems. This is why the event is so popular with the public: we’ll get a teaser of the new features that will soon be added to our iPhones, iPads, Macs and other Apple products.
We also tend to see presentations from third-party developer partners who will talk about how they are updating their software to work with the new platforms.
It’s not always just a software event, though; in the past we have seen hardware announcements too. At WWDC 2017 Apple launched the iMac Pro, a new MacBook and MacBook Pro, a new iPad Pro and the HomePod, for example. If you go further back Apple would actually unveil new iPhones at WWDC – such as in 2010 when it revealed the iPhone 4 – but that kind of thing would be a huge surprise these days.
The hardware announcements that Apple makes around the time of WWDC tend to be high-end, professional Macs rather than consumer-oriented products, because the audience for the event tends to be less mainstream.
When is WWDC 2020?
Apple has announced that WWDC will run from 22-26 June 2020.
That’s a fortnight later than we expected; based on previous years (see below) we had predicted that WWDC would run from 8-12 June. It’s not clear if there’s any reason for the event happening slightly later in the month than usual. We assume it isn’t anything to do with the UK Bank Holiday on 8 June.
- WWDC 2020: Starts Monday 22 June
- WWDC 2019: Monday 3 June
- WWDC 2018: Monday 4 June
- WWDC 2017: Monday 5 June
- WWDC 2016: Monday 13 June
- WWDC 2015: Monday 8 June
- WWDC 2014: Monday 2 June
- WWDC 2013: Monday 10 June
- WWDC 2012: Monday 11 June
- WWDC 2011: Monday 6 June
- WWDC 2010: Monday 7 June
WWDC takes place over the course of a full week, kicking off with a keynote address on the Monday at which various Apple execs present the new features coming to the operating systems.
Why has Apple changed the format for WWDC 2020?
Although Apple doesn’t mention it by name – Apple refers only to the “current health situation” – COVID-19 or coronavirus is the reason for WWDC going online-only this year.
Apple isn’t the only company to make changes due to coronavirus. Numerous other conferences have been cancelled (or made online-only) for the same reason. Fellow tech giants Microsoft, Facebook and Google have taken this step with various gatherings, and the E3 gaming event, which was scheduled for 9-11 June and would very likely have overlapped with WWDC, has been axed too.
Beginning on 11 March Santa Clara County Public Health, which is Apple’s local body, issued a mandatory order banning public gatherings of 1,000 or more people, which would have made WWDC impossible in its usual form. Apple may have felt it had no choice but to alter the plan.
How do I watch WWDC?
Apple will stream the keynote over the internet so you will be able to watch WWDC on your iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Mac and other products.
What will Apple launch at WWDC 2020?
We can confidently state that at WWDC 2020 Apple will tell us about the updates coming to Apple’s various operating systems. It is also possible that the event will include new Macs, more information below.
Before we start with our predictions we’ll recap on what Apple’s done at WWDC over the past few years:
- WWDC 2019: Apple told us about iOS 13 and macOS Catalina. It also unveiled the new Mac Pro and new display.
- WWDC 2018: Apple revealed details of iOS 12 and macOS Mojave. There were no hardware updates at that event.
- WWDC 2017: Apple talked about iOS 11 and macOS 10.13 High Sierra. We also got our first look at the new iMac Pro which was previewed alongside the launch of new iMacs and an updated MacBook Pro and MacBook.
Software
In terms of software previews at WWDC 2020 we expect the following:
iOS 14
We have more information about the new features coming in iOS 14.
macOS 10.16
Here is what we expect from the next version of macOS.
iPadOS
We have details of what we expect to see in iPadOS 14.
Other software
We will also hear about tvOS 14, watchOS 7 and a new version of HomePodOS. Apple may also speak about upcoming changes to its apps such as Pages, Numbers, Keynote, iMovie, Music and more.
Hardware
Now for the hardware we could see at WWDC 2020.
Over-ear headphones
Apple’s said to be gearing up to launch a set of over-ear headphones. Find out more about the rumours surrounding the StudioPods.
Tag object tracker
There’s been evidence for this new product popping up for some time. It seems you will be able to attach the disc to keys, wallets and other important items and track it using the Find My app. Read more about these rumours here: Apple to unveil ‘Tag’ object tracker.
New HomePod or HomePod mini
We are really hoping that Apple will launch a cheaper HomePod to help Apple gain market share in the smart speaker space which is dominated by Amazon and it’s lower-priced Echo speakers, such as the £49.99 Echo Dot. Read more about the Mini HomePod and HomePod 2 here.
New-look iMac
With a design that dates back more than a decade, a change is well overdue for the iMac. We are hoping that 2020 will bring a new iMac with a bigger display (made possible by smaller bezels and a thinner ‘chin’). Read more about the 2020 iMac.
If Apple’s updating the iMac we could also see an update to the iMac Pro.
MacBook
Apple discontinued the MacBook in 2019, but we don’t think it’s the last we’ll see of the consumer Mac laptop. We believe that Apple has plans for a new Mac that will use an Apple-made processor and potentially combine some of the benefits of the iPad – and maybe even a touch screen. We really hope Apple has something up its sleeve, and we think we could get a first look at this new MacBook at WWDC. Read about the rumours about the new MacBook.
Via MACWORLD