Apple to host WWDC 2020 event online owing to coronavirus outbreak

Apple on Friday announced that it will host its annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), which was scheduled to be held in California in June 2020 “on an entirely new online format.”

The announcement came amid the news of many tech giants cancelling on-ground activities for mega tech events, and moving them entirely online.

Apple’s WWDC 2020 event will be conducted entirely virtually for the first time in 30 years. The announcement has been made keeping in mind the “current health situation across the globe.”

“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 Phil Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. “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.”

“The online event will be an opportunity for millions of creative and innovative developers to get early access to the future of iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS and tvOS, and engage with Apple engineers as they work to build app experiences that enrich the lives of Apple customers around the globe,” Apple said in an official statement.

The tech major had pledged $1 million to local San Jose organisations to offset associated revenue loss as a result of WWDC 2020’s new online format.

The event is meant for 23 million registered iOS developers in more than 155 countries and regions.

Another tech giant Microsoft, earlier this week, announced that it will also be shifting one of its biggest events of the year, the annual Build developer conference’ online due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The event was earlier scheduled to be held in Seattle from May 19.

Apart from this, Facebook, Amazon, Cisco-20 and more have transitioned to virtual events keeping in mind the health risks.

The death toll from the coronavirus worldwide has surpassed 5,000 with confirmed cases around the world topping 134,000, according to reports.