Apple Hosting Virtual Worldwide Developers Conference In Late June Due To Coronavirus
CUPERTINO (CBS SF) – Apple has announced a date for a virtual version of its annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), nearly two months after canceling the physical event due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The Cupertino-based tech giant said in a statement on Tuesday that the event would be held starting June 22nd and would be free to all developers.
"WWDC20 will be our biggest yet, bringing together our global developer community of more than 23 million in an unprecedented way for a week in June to learn about the future of Apple platforms," Phil Schiller, the company's senior vice president of worldwide marketing said. "We can't wait to meet online in June with the global developer community and share with them all of the new tools we've been working on to help them create even more incredible apps and services."
In March, Apple canceled the event at the San Jose Convention Center, where the conference has been held since 2017.
While Apple's developer event goes online, other Bay Area tech conferences have been canceled entirely, including this month's Facebook F8 conference and the Google I/O conference. Meanwhile, other major conferences are being held virtually, including the Salesforce Dreamforce conference.
The timeline of the return of large tech conferences, as with other mass gatherings, remains in doubt due to the pandemic. Gov. Gavin Newsom said last month that gatherings with hundreds or even thousands of people are "unlikely" in June, July or August.
Meanwhile, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that the social networking giant won't hold events with 50 or more people until at least June 2021.
