While the pandemic in some ways may be easing, both companies are sticking with online-only events for developers this year. Credit: Dilok Klaisataporn / Getty Images Microsoft and Apple will host their respective developer conferences — Build and WWDC — over the next two months as all-virtual events, mimicking their confabs of 2020. Apple was first to announce last week that WWDC —its Worldwide Developers Conference — will take place June 7-11, those dates in line with the Cupertino, Calif. company’s usual first-full-week-of-June schedule and so several weeks earlier than last year. Meanwhile, Microsoft has now posted the dates for its Build developers conference — May 25-27 — on its company events portal. In 2020, both companies canceled their in-person conferences because of the just-starting COVID-19 pandemic, then replaced them with all-online events. Microsoft kicked off last year’s two-day Build on May 19; Apple began WWDC’s five-day run on June 22. Both conferences won accolades for, among other things, making the events accessible to much greater numbers than their physical predecessors, and for their greatly reduced or entirely eliminated fees. Of the two, Apple’s WWDC was the more professionally produced. Microsoft’s events portal notice does not yet include details about next month’s Build — and the Build website has not been refreshed to reflect this year’s conference — but it will probably be a repeat of 2020’s, which offered both pre-recorded keynotes and live-streamed sessions on numerous topics. The latter were repeated multiple times during the course of the conference and were available on-demand afterward. Apple’s 2020 WWDC was composed entirely of pre-recorded videos, and the assumption is that this year’s version will use the same format. Apple did say that more information about the conference will be issued in advance of the opening day via the dedicated app, the Apple Developer website, and email. Unless Microsoft and Apple radically change the conferences’ monetary underpinnings, they will be free (in the case of Build) and available to registered developers (Apple). Anyone can register as an Apple developer, however, simply by paying the $99 annual fee. Interested parties should keep tabs on the events by periodically visiting their hosting websites here (Microsoft) and here (Apple). Related content news analysis Apple earnings: About that iPhone 'slump' in China Based on information from Thursday's earnings report, it seems that data pointing to an iPhone slump in China were over-baked. By Jonny Evans May 03, 2024 9 mins iMac iPhone Apple news Microsoft begins to phase out ‘classic’ Teams Microsoft is encouraging Teams customers to move to the new, faster version of the collaboration app; the older version will be switched off next year. By Matthew Finnegan May 03, 2024 3 mins Microsoft Teams Collaboration Software Productivity Software news analysis Apple confirms it will open up the iPad in Europe this fall The latest efforts to comply with Europe’s Digital Markets Act mean developers can offer to side load apps to both iPhones and iPads in the EU. Apple has also taken steps to improve what it offers to smaller and non-commercial developers in the By Jonny Evans May 02, 2024 6 mins iPad Apple Mobile Apps news Udacity offers laid-off US workers free access to its courses for 30 days Sign-ups will be available over the next 30 days By Lucas Mearian May 02, 2024 4 mins Technology Industry IT Jobs IT Skills Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe