Apple’s developer conference goes entirely online

The annual Apple WWDC (Worldwide Developers Conference) usually brings thousands of people from around the world to San Jose every year, and became known for its keynote speeches by Steve Jobs and Tim Cook to an amped up crowd. Now, as travel and public gathering is being banned to slow the spread of Covid-19, such events are cancelling and postponing left right and centre, so Apple has decided its week-long event in June will go entirely online.

To help offset some of the loss of earnings local businesses will experience without Apple’s paying crowd, the company has also announced it will donate $1 million to local San Jose organisations.

Tickets are usually around $1,600, and the company hasn’t yet announced if and how this might change. All it has said so far is that the conference will feature content for “consumers, press and developers alike” and will be “an opportunity for millions of creative and innovative developers” to get early access to its latest tech, and engage with Apple engineers.

“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,” says Apple’s Phil Schiller in a statement. “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.”

Apple’s developer community currently has 23 million registered developers in 155 countries and regions. Additional program information will be shared between now and June by email, in the Apple Developer app and on the Apple Developer website.

On Friday, Apple reopened all its stores in Greater China after national closures. Retail stores outside Greater China remain closed until 27 March, and Apple staff are largely working remotely.