Authorities recommend that Apple and others cancel major events

Authorities recommend that Apple and others cancel major events

A few days ago, we announced that the Facebook developer conference was canceled (at least the physical part of it, since everything will happen virtually) due to the outbreak of Coronavirus (COVID-19). In the article, we commented that the next to follow this path would be the Google and Apple conferences, and this was confirmed.

Last Tuesday (3/3), Google printed a message on the event’s official website announcing its cancellation and stating that it is evaluating “other ways to develop the Google I / O to better connect with our developer community ”. The company had also already canceled (the physical side of the event) the Google Cloud Next ’20, which will now take place on a virtual basis between April 6th and 8th. Microsoft, in turn, canceled the MVP Summit (which would take place between 16 and 19 March, but will now be an online event).

From yesterday to today, the Santa Clara County (California, United States) issued an alert on the Coronavirus, citing six cases already confirmed there and requesting, therefore, that big companies like Apple and Google cancel your events and conferences, as well as impose travel restrictions to your employees and encourage remote work – especially among those who have some symptoms of illness.

San Jose, where the McEnery Convention Center is located – Apple’s location for the last three Worldwide Developer Conferences -, is the main and largest city in Santa Clara County.

The big difference from Apple to all the other companies that have canceled their events / conferences so far is that WWDC 2020 is simply still was not even announced. That is, it will not have to be “canceled”; what Apple will probably do, sometime in the coming weeks, is to announce the event in a very different format than we are used to.

Most likely, Apple will still make an opening keynote to present and detail all the news of its new operating systems (perhaps held at the Apple Park’s Steve Jobs Theater, for few guests and members of the press), offering sessions /labs online for an entire week.

There are also those who have raised the hypothesis that Apple simply postpones WWDC 2020, but I think this is very remote considering that it has a well-defined schedule to introduce its new systems, start all tests and leave iOS ready for the arrival of new iPhones In September. That is, there is no escape from that.

Coronavirus has ended up with several events spread around the world, including – in addition to those mentioned above – the Mobile World Congress (MWC; in Barcelona, ​​Spain), the Game Developers Conference (GDC; in San Francisco, USA), the Geneva International Motor Show (Gims; in Geneva, Switzerland), among others.

Worldwide, there are almost 100,000 confirmed cases of people infected with the Coronavirus, with just over 3,000 deaths due to the disease; in the USA, specifically, there are already 11 deaths.

via The Verge