Apple says it’s expanded opportunities for developers to engage with experts, reaching creators and innovators from over 160 countries in 2023. In advance of WWDC24, Apple has also launched additional avenues to reach developers globally, including updated Apple Developer Forums, Pathways, and more.
Susan Prescott, Apple’s vice president of Worldwide Developer Relations, says that last year, Apple was able to help developers realize their full potential through a variety of learning opportunities. Meet with Apple Experts had nearly 50,000 developer engagements online and in person in 2023. Participants dove into the latest Apple tools and resources to bring their apps to the next level, and connected directly with Apple experts for insight, support, and feedback.
Apple Developer Centers in the U.S., China, India, and Singapore have served as homes for a variety of year-round developer engagements, and offer a supportive environment for developers to learn how to grow their businesses and improve their apps. Developers can register for new upcoming sessions, workshops, labs, and one-on-one consultations on an ongoing basis to access support, no matter where they are on their development journey, Prescott says. Among them:
Apple Vision Pro developer labs have enabled developers to experience their visionOS, iPadOS, or iOS apps and games running on Apple Vision Pro. Since their launch in June 2023, the labs have seen over 6,000 visits from developers who worked side by side with Apple experts in Cupertino, New York, London, Munich, Shanghai, Singapore, Sydney, and Tokyo to optimize their apps for the infinite spatial canvas.
Apple Developer Academies and Apple Foundation Programs offer students around the globe the opportunity to explore the essentials of app development and sharpen their coding skills. In 2023, the Developer Academies trained over 1,900 students. Separately, more than 1,800 students went through an Apple Foundation Program. Last year saw the biggest cohort of female students ever in both programs, with women representing 53 percent of students at the Academies and 38 percent of participants of the Foundation Programs.
Apple Entrepreneur Camp is a technology lab that helps entrepreneurs and developers from underrepresented groups create the next generation of cutting-edge apps. Apple hosted another five distinct cohorts in 2023 with founders, engineers, coders, and designers around the world. The program has already supported hundreds of app creators and is celebrating its fifth anniversary this year. Founders and developers who are interested in applying can sign up to be notified about upcoming cohorts.
Ahead of WWDC24 next week, Apple Developer Forums have been updated, connecting developers with more experts and other developers for timely responses to technical questions, and providing code-level support from Apple engineers. The forums have also been reorganized into a streamlined layout by topics, subtopics, and corresponding tags.
Pathways are simple and easy-to-navigate collections of videos, documentation, and resources that can help developers build great apps and games and empower them to take the first step toward developing for Apple platforms. Since its launch in May, over 40,000 developers have accessed content on Pathways for insights into app design, Swift, SwiftUI, game development, visionOS, and distributing on the App Store.
This year, developers can experience WWDC on YouTube for the first time, in addition to the Apple Developer app and website. Developers can visit the Apple Developer channel to subscribe and explore video sessions from the conference.
