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Facebook today canceled its own F8 developer conference, which was scheduled to take place on May 5 and 6 at the McEnery Convention Center in San Jose, California, via a press release.
Facebook has stated in a press release that, in light of the “growing concern” about COVID-19 – the coronavirus – the F8 developer conference will not take place in its usual format and has canceled the in-person component. press release:
We look forward to connecting with our global developer community every year at F8 and sharing our vision for the future we're building together. But with growing concerns around COVID-19, we've made the difficult decision to cancel the in-person component of F8 2020. It was a difficult decision—F8 is an incredibly important event for Facebook and one of our favorite ways to celebrate all of you around the world—but we must prioritize the health and safety of our development partners, employees, and everyone who helps make F8 happen. We've explored other ways to maintain the in-person part of F8, but it's important to us to host an inclusive event, and it didn't feel right to host F8 without our international developers.
What does this mean for WWDC 2020?
Accordingly, the in-person portion of the F8 developer conference will be canceled, but there will be videos and live streams. But what exactly does this mean for Apple's WWDC 2020? F8 is an event of the same size as Apple's WWDC (World Wide Developer Conference), which was attended by around 5,000 people last year. Apple usually holds WWDC in early June, a month later than Facebook. Now the question is whether Apple will also take this step. Apple also usually chooses the same venue. However, no concrete dates or indications of reservations have been discovered so far – somewhat unusual. Overall, it cannot be ruled out that Apple will also reschedule, as F8 is not the first major event to be canceled. The Mobile World Congress event also had to be postponed due to the coronavirus. So it remains to be seen how Apple will ultimately react to this. Since the company says it is working closely with US health authorities and is taking advice seriously, a similar step cannot be ruled out. (Photo by Denys Prykhodov / Bigstockphoto)
