Apple just announced the dates for this year’s Worldwide Developer Conference
Here’s when (and how) we’ll get to see a preview of all of Apple’s Fall software releases.
It’s funny, I was just thinking last night that we were due for an announcement of the dates for Apple’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), and here we are! From Apple’s press release today:
Apple today announced it will host its annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in an online format from June 6 through 10, free for all developers to attend. Building on the success of the past two years of virtual events, WWDC22 will showcase the latest innovations in iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, and tvOS, while giving developers access to Apple engineers and technologies to learn how to create groundbreaking apps and interactive experiences.
The two big questions leading up to this announcement were 1) when would WWDC be held and 2) would it finally return to a live, in-person event, or retain its COVID-era online format? The answer is clearly that Apple isn’t ready to go back to an all in-person event, which isn’t surprising. Apple has been extremely cautious from the beginning with regard to its COVID protocols. (Too cautious if you ask me.) The biggest longterm question is, will they ever return to in-person events?
I’m still leaning toward Apple eventually hosting live events again. I certainly hope they do. There’s just something historically very Apple about rolling out new products before a live audience. But the way they phrased the title of this press release gives me some pause: “Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference returns in its all-online format.” That phrase “it’s all-online format” certainly could be read to mean, “this is what this event is.” If that proves true, I think it’s a big disappointment. On the one hand, I know it must be incredibly taxing on Apple to host a major week-long in-person event every year in which most of their key engineers are out of the lab talking with customers and thus not working on shipping product. But what an incredible opportunity it was in the days of WWDC-that-was to have independent developers talk directly with a live Apple software engineer!
Encouragingly, there is one in-person aspect to this year’s WWDC, albeit a small one:
In addition to the online conference, Apple will host a special day for developers and students at Apple Park on June 6 to watch the keynote and State of the Union videos together, along with the online community. Space will be limited, and details about how to apply to attend will be provided on the Apple Developer site and app soon.
If the title of this release is the biggest sign that Apple doesn’t want to return to the old in-person WWDC days, this announcement about a live watch party at Apple Park is the biggest sign that maybe they do, and this is a bridge toward that. We’ll of course revisit this topic next year as we approach WWDC 2023.
In the meantime, now we know when we can expect to see previews (and first beta releases) of macOS 13, iOS 16, iPadOS 16, tvOS 16, and watchOS 9. I can’t wait!