Apple WWDC 2020 goes virtual, to begin on June 22

In March this year, instead of cancelling its World Wide Developer Conference (WWDC) due to the COVID-19 outbreak, Apple announced its plan to adopt the online format for the conference. The Cupertino technology giant has now released the date and some more information about the upcoming conference.

Scheduled to begin on June 22 this year, WWDC20 will be hosted in the Apple Developer app and on the Apple Developer website free for all developers. Additional WWDC20 program information - including keynote and Platforms State of the Union details, session and lab schedules, and more - will be shared only in June, before the conference. This information will also be shared on the Apple Developer website and via e-mail. In its 31st year, the upcoming WWDC will give developers early access to the future of iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, and tvOS, and engage with Apple engineers.

"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," says Phil Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. "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. We look forward to sharing more details about WWDC20 with everyone as we get closer to this exciting event."

Apple's App Store is available in 175 countries and regions and continues to be the world's safest app marketplace. Apple says more than half a billion people visit the App Store each week. The App Store features many ways for developers to build their businesses, and since its launch in 2008, developers have been creating innovative apps that influence culture and change lives.

Apple believes students to be an integral part of Apple developer community and has announced the Swift Student Challenge, an opportunity for student developers to showcase their coding talent by creating their own Swift playground. Last year's WWDC saw attendance from more than 350 student developers spanning 37 different countries.

Craig Federighi, Apple's senior vice president of Software Engineering, says, "As we look forward to WWDC20, although our gathering will be virtual this year, we want to recognise and celebrate the creative contributions of our young developers from around the world. We can't wait to see this next generation of innovative thinkers turn their ideas into a reality through the Swift Student Challenge."

Swift Playgrounds is an app available for iPad and Mac that helps in learning the Swift programming language in an interactive manner. Submissions for the Swift Student challenge for creating an interactive scene in a Swift playground can be submitted between May 5 and May 17, 2020.

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