Worldwide Developers Conference

Worldwide Developers Conference, formerly Apple Developers Conference, is an annual conference hosted by Apple Inc. for hardware and software developers of its products. Commonly abbreviated to WWDC and sometimes colloquially referred to as "Dub-Dub", the event is typically held in Northern California, near Apple's U.S. headquarters. Apple also uses the venue to introduce new technologies and preview upcoming versions of macOS, iOS, watchOS, and related products.

Attendance
A $1,599 ticket is required to enter the conference. Tickets are obtained through an online lottery. Scholarships are available for students and members of STEM organizations. Attendees must be 13 years or older and must be a member of an Apple Developer program.

Until 2007, the number of attendees varied between 2,000 and 4,200; however, during WWDC 2007, Steve Jobs noted that there were more than 5,000 attendees. The WWDC events held from 2008 to 2015 were capped, and sold out at 5,000 attendees (5,200 including special attendees). WWDC 2018 had 6,000 attendees from 77 countries, including 350 scholarship recipients.

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.

Trivia

 * Siri pronounces WWDC as "dub-dub-dee-see".
 * 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)

Worldwide Developers Conference