WWDC 2024 is only one week away. We’re anticipating main modifications from iOS 18, particularly AI-centric options, in addition to the primary main software program replace for Imaginative and prescient Professional, and new OS variations for all of Apple’s different platforms.
In what’s anticipated to be a jam-packed software program occasion, is there room for Apple to debut new {hardware} too? In accordance with one report, the reply isn’t any.
{Hardware} bulletins at WWDC
Traditionally, WWDC has all the time centered round software program. It’s a developer convention, so Apple spends most of its time highlighting upcoming software program releases and all of the methods builders can undertake the most recent APIs to make their apps prepared for these releases.
Nevertheless, it’s not unusual for Apple to make use of the convention as a chance to debut new {hardware}, too. Right here’s a current historical past of WWDC {hardware} bulletins:
- 2023: Imaginative and prescient Professional, 15-inch MacBook Air, Mac Professional, Mac Studio
- 2022: MacBook Air, 13-inch MacBook Professional
- 2021: none
Final 12 months’s WWDC got here with a significant {hardware} story, with the Imaginative and prescient Professional’s first unveiling but in addition a trio of latest Mac releases. 2022 launched new Macs as effectively. So 2021 was the final time no new {hardware} was debuted at WWDC.
No new {hardware} at WWDC 2024
In accordance with Mark Gurman’s Energy On publication, the current progress of {hardware} bulletins at WWDC stops this 12 months. He doesn’t count on any {hardware} to be introduced, with the main target being solely on software program.
Gurman writes:
There’s no {hardware} slated to be introduced at WWDC, until Apple unexpectedly previews a brand new machine launching later (to be clear: I don’t count on that). The corporate up to date the iPad in Could, and the brand new iPhones, AirPods and Apple Watches aren’t arriving till September. There’s additionally no new Imaginative and prescient Professional coming anytime quickly, and the AirTag 2 isn’t as a consequence of arrive till subsequent 12 months. A brand new Apple TV isn’t imminent both, and the M4 Mac vary isn’t coming till the autumn.
Anybody hoping for brand spanking new {hardware} any time quickly might want to wait till September and Apple’s annual iPhone occasion.
9to5Mac’s Take
It was uncommon for us to obtain new {hardware} in Could, however the M4 iPad Professional and M2 iPad Air’s introductions maybe cleared the best way for an particularly packed roster of WWDC software program information. Gurman has stated iOS 18 shall be one of many largest iOS updates ever, and with one other new OS within the roster this 12 months—visionOS—Apple ought to have loads of bulletins to nonetheless make a software-only WWDC particular.
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