A year ago, Apple used the WWDC 2020 keynote to lift the lid on Apple Silicon. A year into Apple’s own two-year transition cycle, and many were expecting an “Apple Silicon State of the Union” at this year’s keynote. Some went as far as expecting Apple to unveil new hardware.
Instead, Apple didn’t mention the groundbreaking technology. Not once.
But why?
The answer is simple.
Developers don’t need to worry about the hardware.
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That’s right. Just as Apple doesn’t use WWDC to highlight the processor speed or RAM in an iPad or iPhone, the silicon doesn’t matter. As long as developers are using the tools at their disposal, the apps will run just fine whether they are powered by Intel or Apple silicon.
And with good reason.
Look at macOS Monterey’s list of supported hardware, and you have Intel Mac’s on there going as far back as late 2013 — that’s almost eight years — and it’s going to be a long time before all those Intel Macs are replaced by Apple Silicon Macs.
So, developers need to do what they are good at — developing software.
I think that over the years, there’s been a creep of things into the WWDC keynote that had nothing to do with developers. I mean, back at WWDC 2015, Apple unveiled Apple Music, something that had zero to do with developers at all.
The bottom line is that WWDC is not the time for Apple execs to unveil new products or waste developer’s time by patting themselves on the back for a job well done. It’s about letting developers know what’s coming on the software front so they can be ready.
And this is exactly what the WWDC 2021 keynote did.
Mission accomplished.
