Apple Schedules Virtual WWDC 2020 For June

The conference, which is free for all developers, will be held entirely online for the first time in its three-decade history.

Apple has scheduled this year's online-only Worldwide Developers Conference to start June 22 and says the virtual event will be free to all developers.

The Cupertino, Calif.-based company had said in March that WWDC 2020 would go virtual as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Along with content for developers, WWDC typically includes a keynote featuring top Apple executives and previews of upcoming operating system releases including iOS and macOS. In the past, Apple also unveiled new hardware during the conference keynote, although the company moved away from the approach starting with WWDC 2018.

Apple's announcement Tuesday alludes to a keynote taking place at this year's conference but doesn't provide the specific timing. In previous years, the keynote has taken place during the first day of WWDC.

Apple noted that this is the first time the conference will be held virtually. It will be Apple's 31st annual developers conference.

"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," said Phil Schiller, the company's senior vice president of worldwide marketing, in a news release.

Last week, Apple said that revenue for the iPhone is expected to drop during the current quarter, on a year-over-year basis, in part due to the impacts of the coronavirus crisis. However, the company's Mac and iPad businesses are expected to grow due to demand from remote work and distance learning.

Offering Apple notebooks during the transition to work-from-home has been advantageous because of the strong security that Macs bring by default, said Jim Harryman, CEO of Kinetic Technology Group, a Mac-focused MSP based in Dallas.

Many businesses worry about employees using potentially insecure home networks, but that's less of a concern for businesses that focus on Macs, he said. Mac is "still a vastly superior platform from a security perspective," Harryman said.