Besides a slew of events focused squarely on the technical side of developing and designing applications for iOS 8 and OS X 10.10, Apple, this year, will be holding a pair of interesting events over the course of the first week of June at WWDC.
On Wednesday June 4th from 4:30 to 5:30 PM Pacific Time, an event called Women in Technology Get Together will take place. This important event will discuss “the increased participation of women in technology,” the schedule in the updated WWDC app reads. Apple is making a point to further involve women in the conference this year, even announcing that the National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT) will provide scholarships for women to attend WWDC:
Celebrate the increased participation of women in technology! Join like-minded peers, industry leaders, and others to discuss technology education for girls, workplace training, mentoring, diversity and inclusion, male advocacy, entrepreneurship, and more. Be prepared to share your experiences and ideas, get inspired and help motivate others.
Another important event taking place at WWDC this year is Apps for China. This event will take place at the same time as the Women in Technology event, June 4th from 4:30 to 5:30 PM Pacific Time. This event is all about helping developers grow and launch their apps in China:
With more and more iPhones, iPads, and Macs in China everyday, there’s a huge business opportunity for apps in this region. Meet developers who’ve brought their app to China, talk with Chinese developers about their experience, culture, and language, discussing marketing apps in China, talk to people about getting an app approved for China, and make new friends with other developers and Apple experts who know or want to know more about this topic. Discuss localization and meet people who localize apps, see and show some of the most popular apps in China, exchange ideas about how best to support Chinese speakers, and get motivated by all of the opportunities that exist for China games, educational app, and business apps.
China is a giant growth market for Apple, with CEO Tim Cook once referring to the region as a “hyper-market.” Apple has been promoting apps for China for the past couple of the years, but this sessions stands as Apple’s broadest attempt yet at making sure developers understand the importance of China. We recently profiled new Apple Senior VP of Retail Angela Ahrendt’s ambitions for further retail growth in the China sector.
Besides the two sessions, it is interesting that this year’s conference has so many top-secret sessions. This year, instead of simply calling the sessions “To Be Announced,” Apple has given the labs humorous titles:
The categories for the secret sessions range from tools to services to frameworks to Core OS topics. Actual details about the labs will be revealed following the June 2nd keynote event, according to the schedule.
As for a keynote address, one will be held on Monday, June 2nd at 10 AM and new hardware is likely to be shown off. Other interesting special events to take place during the week of WWDC:
- Developer Platforms State of the Union Keynote: June 2nd 2:00 to 3:30 PM PT
- Apple Design Awards: June 2nd 4:00 to 5:00 PM PT
- Star Wars Past, Present and Future: June 5th 12:45 to 1:45 PM PT
- The Bash/Concert: June 5th 6:30 to 9:30 PM PT
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I think it’s also interesting,that they have already announced an automation session for OSX. I’d love to get a great update for Automator.
They have an Automation Lab every year… though it does sound like some new stuff is coming! The description is “With so much new with the OS X automation technologies this year, you’ll want to get by the lab early. Bring your questions about implementing automation support in your applications, and stay for overview of the new abilities and features of AppleScript and Automator in OS X.”
Well, my prediction: Apple may release a new Apple TV interface with and App Store and/or an updated Apple TV and possibly take the curtain off the iWatch. If you think about it, then it all makes sense. There are work shops for creating Apps for the Apple TV and there are work shops for creating Apps that work on the iWatch and that also talk to you iPhone 5S’s M7 chip for health applications and much more. They will then have a release date of the iWatch for the Fall (which we all know is September along side the newest iPhone). These are my thoughts as to why we don’t really know much as of right now, but if Apple did both of these things, if not at least one of them they could be striking gold.
Any idea how many women attended the WWDC14 conference in a total of 6000 attendees?