Apple’s Annual Developer Conference Costs $50 Million to Run
Apple’s Annual Developer Conference Costs $50 Million to Run
(Bloomberg) -- Apple Inc.’s annual worldwide developer conferences cost the company about $50 million a year to put on and the company is building a new center at its Silicon Valley headquarters to assist developers, according to its top App Store executive.
Phil Schiller, a longtime Apple executive and now Apple Fellow, provided that update while testifying Monday at an antitrust trial in a case brought by Epic Games Inc. Apple holds its annual conference, called WWDC, to announce new hardware and software and teach developers about new software features. Apple also uses the event to hold classes with developers to help them design new applications.
Apple has held the conference for decades, typically in San Francisco or San Jose, California, for a week at a time. Last year, Apple held the event virtually due to the Covid-19 pandemic. This year’s event, beginning June 7, will also be held virtually. Before temporarily moving the conference online, Apple charged developers more than $1,500 each to attend.
Schiller also disclosed that Apple is building a facility at its Apple Park campus for developers so that they can work on their applications at a company facility and receive support from its engineers. Schiller said the company’s facilities division is responsible for the construction project and it’s not charged against App Store operations.
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