’s Worldwide Developer Conference — or — is one of the company’s biggest annual events. Despite being ostensibly aimed at Apple’s enthusiastic developer community, for enthusiasts, it’s second only to the company’s September event where the latest iPhones are unveiled. That’s because it has a reputation for big consumer-friendly reveals. As well as a glimpse at the software updates that’ll be coming to
Apple products over the next few months, we’re sometimes treated to some big hardware announcements too. Over the years, WWDC has treated us to new Macs, iPhones and even entirely new hardware lines as we saw in 2017 with the HomePod. This year, we’re expecting a hardware gamble that could prove genuinely transformational… Apple has confirmed that this year’s festivities will take place between Monday, June 5 and Friday, June 9. We can expect the big announcements to be frontloaded to the main keynote on day one. SPONSORED Here are some of the things we’re expecting, though with Apple there’s always a degree of speculation and room for something completely out of the blue. The headline stealer is set to be Apple’s first steps into the metaverse with a VR/AR headset. Apple has tried to do this quietly, but perpetual interest in the company means that plenty of details have slipped through the net. These include a likely brand name: Reality One or Reality Pro, which both . Tim Cook has long been an evangelist for , telling an audience in
Ireland that he saw it as “the next big thing” back in 2020. “It will pervade our entire lives,” he . Apple’s various patents on AR and VR get a little confusing, because while the short-term plan might be in the same space as Microsoft’s HoloLens or Meta’s Quest Pro, in the long run, Apple is said to be planning something more like
Google Glass. The technology inside may overlap, but the use cases are very different: the latter could be comfortably worn at all times. The analyst Ming-Chi Kuo believes that Apple sees this as something to replace the
iPhone in the long term. “Apple’s goal is to replace the iPhone with AR in 10 years, representing the demand for ABF of AR headsets will exceed at least one billion pieces in ten years,” he last year. More recent reports have suggested that such smartglasses . But this is still a fascinating first step into a whole new product category, and it’ll be interesting to see how Apple presents it in two months’ time. With Apple set to finally reveal its first headset, other hardware announcements are far from a sure thing. After all, the last thing the company wants is for its new and shiny headliner to be upstaged by something more familiar. That said, there are two Macs that are strong possibilities to make an appearance in some form or other. The first is a new, larger MacBook Air which has long been tipped for a spring release. How much larger? Reports suggest Apple is looking at a 15-inch model, giving it similar screen real estate to the MacBook Pro line. If it appears, it will likely be powered by the M2 or M2 Pro chipset. The second is the Mac Pro — the only member of the Mac family that still runs on Intel chips. While this is Apple’s top-of-the-range desktop, it’s aimed at professionals rather than regular consumers. Prices currently start at £5,499 — despite it approaching its fourth birthday. We’d expect a refreshed Mac Pro to come with Apple’s M2 Ultra chip — or something even more powerful — but whether it still keeps its ‘cheese grater’ design is up in the air. WWDC being a developer-focused event, the one thing that’s guaranteed is software updates — and plenty of them. Historically, Apple uses the event to introduce new software features and give developers beta access, so that there’s plenty of compatible apps when the updates roll out to every customer. That means we’ll get a first glimpse at the software powering the iPhone 15 — iOS 17. With , that could be one to watch. Apple’s other operating systems from macOS to tvOS are likely to get updates too, and those coming to watchOS 10 could prove especially noteworthy. well-connected tech reporter Mark Gurman has heard that it will include “notable changes to the user interface” for Apple Watch owners. That could be interesting, given past watchOS UI updates haven been limited to watch faces and minor tweaks. Apple has historically made WWDC events easy to watch from anywhere in the world — and there’s no reason to suspect that’ll be different this time around. While times have not yet been provided, the main keynote will likely be broadcast both on and the . Last time, the keynote kicked off at 10am Pacific Time, which ensured a reasonable 6pm start on this side of the Atlantic.