Apple has announced that its annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) will start on 8 June, when iOS 9 and the next version of the Mac OS are set to be revealed. The five-day event will take place in San Francisco and will feature the regular opening day keynote when Apple will unveil its plans for the next-generation operating systems.
"We’ve got incredible new technologies for iOS and OS X to share with developers at WWDC and around the world, and can’t wait to see the next generation of apps they create," said Apple's senior vice president of marketing, Phil Schiller, in a statement announcing the WWDC dates.
Those expecting big changes to iOS itself could be disappointed. Reports suggest that iOS 9 will be something of a clean-up operation, looking to fix the bugs and stabilise the code of an operating system that has been through two major overhauls with iOS 7 and iOS 8. Apple is also expected to reduce the footprint of the operating system, providing some crucial extra storage space for those running entry-level devices with a measly 8GB or 16GB of storage.
However, Apple is widely expected to reveal its plans for the Beats music streaming app, after acquiring Dr Dre's service for $3 billion last year. Many are predicting that Apple will unleash a "Spotify killer", with Apple quietly wooing recording artists over the past few months. Apple this week released a beta of iOS 8.4, which included a revamped version of the Music app for the iPhone/iPad operating system, however Beats is expected to run as an entirely separate app.
OS XI?
If iOS 9 is a rather muted release, it could provide an opportunity for Apple to make more of a splash with a new version of OS X. Although it's been through many iterations and is virtually unrecognisable from the initial release, OS X is now 14 years old, and Apple may decide it's time to move to OS XI - not least because the naming convention of OS X is now getting decidedly awkward, with the last release incongruously referred to as OS X 10.10, which numerically slips behind 2002's OS X 10.2. With Microsoft set to release Windows 10 this summer, a major new version of the Mac OS could also be a thunder stealer.
Developers wishing to attend WWDC in San Francisco have to apply for the $1,600 tickets here, with "lucky" winners selected at random to fill the always heavily over-subscribed event. The keynote event will almost certainly be streamed live to Apple devices and from the Apple website.