Worldwide Developers Conference

The Apple Worldwide Developers Conference is an annual trade show for Apple developers. Commonly abbreviated to WWDC and sometimes colloquially referred to as "Dub-Dub", the event is typically held in Northern California near Apple's headquarters.

The attendee numbers have varied between roughly 2000 - 3500 developers in recent years. It is Apple's chance to introduce new technologies to its developers, and has been used in recent years to demonstrate and distribute preview versions of upcoming versions of macOS, iOS, watchOS, and related products.

Format
The conference is typically opened with a keynote. From 1998 to 2011, the keynote was presented by then-Apple CEO Steve Jobs. After Jobs passed away in 2011, current Apple CEO Tim Cook began to take Jobs' place of introducing the conference.

All attendees have to sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) that covers the sessions and other material handed out at WWDC. In the past, the keynote was also covered by the NDA, but Apple is now webcasting the keynote address to an audience much wider than just developers.

Scope
WWDC originally was not a place for hardware announcements, but Apple deviated from that principle in 2002 when it announced the rack mounted server Xserve, and in 2003, with the consumer-oriented iSight.

In 2003, WWDC was merged with another Apple trade show called QuickTime Expo. The number of QuickTime sessions was increased, and the Apple Design Awards were joined by Apple Design Awards for QuickTime Content. At the same time, more enterprise-oriented content was added, focusing on the Xserve and Mac OS X Server operating system.

History

 * WWDC 1983 : Monterey, California, USA, 1983
 * WWDC 1987 : Santa Clara, California, USA, 1987
 * WWDC 1988 : San Jose, California, USA, 1988
 * WWDC 1989 : San Jose, California, USA, May 9-May 12, 1989
 * WWDC 1990 : San Jose, California, USA, May 7-May 11, 1990
 * WWDC 1991 : San Jose, California, USA, May 13-May 17, 1991
 * WWDC 1992 : San Jose, California, USA, May 11-May 15, 1992
 * WWDC 1993 : San Jose, California, USA, May 10-May 14, 1993
 * WWDC 1994 : San Jose, California, USA, May 15-May 20, 1994
 * WWDC 1995 : San Jose, California, USA, May 8-May 12, 1995
 * WWDC 1996 : San Jose, California, USA, May 13-May 17, 1996
 * WWDC 1997 : San Jose, California, USA, May 13-May 16, 1997
 * WWDC 1998 : San Jose, California, USA, May 11-May 15, 1998
 * WWDC 1999 : San Jose, California, USA, May 10-May 14, 1999
 * WWDC 2000 : San Jose, California, USA, May 15-May 19, 2000
 * WWDC 2001 : San Jose, California, USA, May 21-May 25, 2001
 * WWDC 2002 : San Jose, California, USA, May 6-May 10, 2002
 * WWDC 2003 : San Francisco, California, USA, June 23-June 27, 2003
 * WWDC 2004 : San Francisco, California, USA, June 28-July 2, 2004
 * WWDC 2005 : San Francisco, California, USA, June 6-June 10, 2005
 * WWDC 2006 : San Francisco, California, USA, August 7-August 11, 2006
 * WWDC 2007 : San Francisco, California, USA, June 11-June 15, 2007
 * WWDC 2008 : San Francisco, California, USA, June 9-June 13, 2008
 * WWDC 2009 : San Francisco, California, USA, June 8-June 12, 2009
 * WWDC 2010 : San Francisco, California, USA, June 7-June 11, 2010
 * WWDC 2011 : San Francisco, California, USA, June 6-June 10, 2011
 * WWDC 2012 : San Francisco, California, USA, June 11-June 15, 2012
 * WWDC 2013 : San Francisco, California, USA, June 10-June 14, 2013
 * WWDC 2014 : San Francisco, California, USA, June 2-June 6, 2014
 * WWDC 2015 : San Francisco, California, USA, June 8-June 12, 2015
 * WWDC 2016 : San Francisco, California, USA, June 13-June 17, 2016
 * WWDC 2017 : San Jose, California, USA, June 5-June 9, 2017
 * WWDC 2018 : San Jose, California, USA, June 4-June 8, 2018
 * WWDC 2019 : San Jose, California, USA, June 3-June 7, 2019
 * WWDC 2020 : online only, begins June 22, 2020

Trivia

 * Starting with WWDC 2012, Apple changed the requirement of attendees being from 18 year old and older, to 13 years old and older.
 * WWDC 2020 will be the be the first to be hold solely in an online format without a live audience, due to the impact of the 2019–20 coronavirus pandemic caused by the COVID-19 virus.

Articles

 * The History Of WWDC: Apple’s Biggest Announcements by Alex Heath at Cult of Mac (2012-06-08)
 * WWDC: Looking back at the past 10 years by Kelly Hodgkins at Engadget (2011-06-05)
 * 10 Reasons Why You Should Care About WWDC by Bryan Wolfe at MakeUseOf (2017-05-25)
 * A Brief History of Apple’s WWDC Keynotes, 1997-Present by Harry McCracken at Time (2012-06-11)