Apple Inc. announced today that its annual Worldwide Developers Conference will be online only this year and will be held from June 6 through to June 10.

Although Apple did not mention COVID-19 as a reason for holding WWDC22 virtually, it has done so in previous years because of the pandemic. Officially, Apple is pitching the choice to do the event online for the third year in a row as allowing “developers from around the world to come together to explore how to bring their best ideas to life and push the envelope of what’s possible.”

However, there is one exception to the event being online: Apple said it will host a special day for developers and students at Apple Park on June 6 to watch the keynote and State of the Union videos together.

As with every WWDC, major announcements are expected, with Apple saying that it will showcase the latest innovations from iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS and tvOS. Apple reportedly may also show new hardware products at the event.

Possibilities for new hardware that may debut at the event include a new Mac Pro desktop computer or even a new MacBook Air. Revealing surprises at WWDC has been a tradition at Apple since the days of Steve Jobs, so something is likely to be announced.

The prediction of a new MacBook Air and Mac Pro first emerged in January and the devices didn’t make an appearance at Apple’s “Peak Performance” event in March. The new Macbook Air is predicted as having the biggest redesign in its history and will also receive Apple silicon, likely the M2 chip. A new Apple silicon version of the Mac Pro desktop is predicted to have up to a 40-core CPU and a 128-core GPU.

The outside surprise at the event could be a mixed-reality headset. Apple was first reported to be working on a headset in January 2021. In November, esteemed Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo predicted the headset could debut in late 2022. Therefore, a preview of the device at WWDC is a possibility, since Apple will want to have developers build products for it before it goes to market.

The form the headset will take remains open to speculation. Kuo believes the device will be a standalone wearable that will not require a secondary device, such as a Mac or an iPhone. Instead, it will contain its own embedded processor “with the same computing power level as the Mac,” which would be a comparable level to the M1.

On Jan.9, Mark Gurman of Bloomberg said he believes that Apple will ignore a metaverse headset and will instead offer a mixed-reality headset that is used for “bursts of gaming, communication and content consumption,” but it will not be an “all-day device.”

Image: Apple