Apple pivots WWDC 2020 to be online-only event over coronavirus concerns

Published , by Brittany Vincent

Apple is officially taking its annual developers conference, WWDC, online.

WWDC 2020 will be a streaming-only event thanks to growing concerns over coronavirus infections. Apple confirmed the news itself on Friday (March 13) via press release.

"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," said Apple’s Senior VP of Worldwide Marketing Phil Schiller.

WWDC is Apple's annual developer's conference, where the company reveals new features and occasionally hardware in San Jose, CA. There are a variety of different workshops held by Apple employees and plenty additional information for Apple consumers at the events, so they're usually a pretty big deal all around.

Now, you'll be able to get the same information this year, just via livestream. In addition, Apple will donate $1 million to organizations in and around San Jose to help offset any projected losses the city must deal with without the event's physical presence there.

Apple is the latest in a line of tech companies opting for online conferences this year instead thanks to concerns over coronavirus. It's following suit alongside companies like Google, Facebook, and Microsoft. Other events, such as GDC 2020 and E3 2020, were canceled outright. It remains to be seen how long this parade of cancellations is going to last.