The Apple Worldwide Developers Conference has grown into a global phenomenon. Started in 1995 with products we may have never used (anyone ever heard of OpenDoc?), the Conference has run for almost as long as I have been alive, though its current keynote format did not come about until the mid-2000s. And like many of my peers in the tech industry, watching the live stream of that keynote has become a yearly tradition.
That format, which brings thousands upon thousands of developers to San Francisco, is a staple in the tech world, and has been copied by many other companies (including the equally massive Google I/O). But still, those other companies have never been able to capture the genius in a bottle that was the late and great Steve Jobs. His trademark “One More Thing” blew our minds each year. The tenacity that tech publications showed trying to guess what that “thing” was each year was unparalleled.
It was all a spectacle, and everyone wanted to be a part of it. This year was no different.
<img src="https://venngage.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/AppleWWDCc.png" alt="Infographic: Apple WWDC | Venngage" /> See this <a href="https://venngage.com/blog/apple-wwdc-infographic">infographic on Venngage</a>.
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The 2016 Apple Worldwide Developers Conference was light on hardware but heavy on software updates and unveilings. Let’s start with the updates.
Apple Watch was finally given the software it deserved, with a fully rebuilt UI and operating system. An update that made it seven times, yes, SEVEN times faster than the previous operating system. And a Breathe app was added to help you meditate and be mindful like a pro.
Now iOS has finally hit double digits with iOS 10, and Apple so fittingly announced 10 main features to look out for, including a fully revamped iMessage app with a ton of new ways to communicate (too many to list here). They also added apps to the iMessage app, so you can send money or gifs right from a message. And Siri was opened up for all developers to use!
And now for the unveilings. Our favorite three-letter operating system, OS X, was renamed and rebranded as macOS. This time, they stayed with the natural wonders naming scheme, choosing Sierra to match Yosemite and Mavericks. A bunch of big features were added to the OS, including Apple Watch unlock and Siri Integration.
Finally, my favorite announcement was Swift Playgrounds. It will change the way kids learn how code for the better, and directly from an iPad! Built with minigames and challenges, kids will be learning Swift before you know it. Apple is literally building its next generation of developers with Swift Playgrounds.
Like its predecessors, the 2016 Apple WWDC brought mystery, excitement, and revelation. But how did they get to this point? How did Apple build a cult following that causes the tech world to virtually pause for a random Monday in June? The infographic above shows a timelines of the greatest reveals at the Apple WWDC over the last ten years.
Want to create your own infographic timeline? Try out one of our infographic timeline templates.
The infographic in this article was created by Joanna Lu.