Apple’s Developer Conference Glosses Over Developers
By Shira Ovide
Apple Inc.’s worldwide developer conference revolves around — you guessed it — developers. Since Tim Cook became chief executive officer of Apple and master of ceremonies at the annual rite known as WWDC, he tends to kick off each conference by boasting about the millions of entities large and tiny that make apps for Apple products.
On Monday, Cook opened the conference by talking about developers for the first 79 seconds of his on-stage time, by my stopwatch. “We are so inspired by the millions of incredible Apple developers around the world,” Cook said. “You make the world a better place, and that is why we’re here this morning.”
Apple then spent the next 2 hours and 16 minutes talking mostly about itself. About Apple’s apps, Apple’s $12,000-and-up computer, Apple’s coming lineup of entertainment programming, Apple’s software refinements, Apple’s commitments to privacy.
Sure, there was stuff in there about and for developers, too. And app makers need to know what Apple is cooking up so they can adapt. But looking back at the eight years of Apple’s developer conferences since Cook became CEO, the paucity of his focus this week on app makers and the strength of Apple’s app storefront felt like an omission.
