If you were expecting to see a MacBook ARM or the rumored AirPods Studio at WWDC 2020, then we’ve got some bad news: Apple may not reveal any hardware at its developer conference this week.
That’s according to Twitter tech leakers Jon Prosser and Max Weinbach that claim to have knowledge that no hardware will be shown off at WWDC. Though Prosser says that he hopes he's wrong, and Weinbach said to take such information with a pinch of salt.
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Weinbach noted that this tips come from Apple insiders that don’t work on WWDC related teams. That means there’s a chance he could be wrong about there being no hardware revealed at the developer conference.
I had two sources tell me no hardware for WWDC tomorrow. They aren’t on WWDC related teams but heard it through the Apple grapevine. I’d take this with a grain of salt, but thought it was worth mentioning.June 21, 2020
Prosser was less open about his sources. But he did claim that he might be mistaken, though he would be surprised if some hardware was shown off.
Looking like any possible hardware has been scrapped for WWDC tomorrow 🤔 Might be wrong about this one. Would love to be wrong!I’ll be surprised with all of you, either way!June 21, 2020
But the information the tech leakers claim to have does track with a new report from Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo ,who reckons the Mac machines with ARM-based chips won’t get launched until the third quarter of 2020 at the earliest. Kuo predicts a redesigned iMac 2020 will be the first with a new in-house designed ARM chip, followed by the 13-inch MacBook Pro making use of such chips come the end of the year or early 2021.
This makes sense as Apple would need to give developers time to rework their software and apps to run on ARM’s RISC architecture rather than the x86 architecture used in Intel chips that the Mac lineup currently has. At best, Apple could reveal a development kit so software makers can get started making apps for ARM-based MacBook Pros and iMacs.
We’d also been expecting Apple to take the covers off the AirPods Studio, its first high-end over-ear headphones with active noise cancellation. Previous rumors also suggested that Apple's AirTags trackers could appear at the event.
However, it looks likely that there’ll be no hardware reveals after all. That means that WWDC will focus wholly on software and what Apple will do with highly anticipated releases such as iOS 14, iPadOS 14 and watchOS 7.
We’d like to see how Apple plans to bring more augmented reality features to the iPad Pro 2020 for example, or how watchOS could be boosted in time for the Apple Watch 6.
We'll know for sure what Apple has in store when WWDC 2020 kicks off in a few hours at 10 a.m. PT/1 p.m. ET. Be sure to check out our guide on how to watch WWDC 2020, and stay locked to Tom's Guide for live coverage of the big event.
