Tim Cook flags off WWDC 2016, says it will be about OS updates

Cook, who was in his usual blue shirt and black trousers, welcomed the developers to the conference and said that the youngest one was a nine-year-old girl.

Cook, who was in his usual blue shirt and black trousers, welcomed the developers to the conference and said that the youngest one was a nine-year-old girl. (Apple)

As has been the practice in recent times, Apple's chief executive officer Tim Cook took to the stage at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco, California to flag off the annual Worldwide Developers Conference which is also popularly known as the WWDC event.

Cook, who was in his usual blue shirt and black trousers, welcomed the developers to the conference and said that the youngest one was a nine-year-old girl. The CEO then moved on to provide a quick recap of Apple growth in the last few months after saying that this conference would be about its four operating systems - iOS, OS X, watchOS and tvOS.

Maintaining that the company's vision was to empower users and enrich their lives through great experiences, Cook said that the app ecosystem has grown by leaps and bounds along with new products like the Apple Watch which he claimed has snatched the tag of being the best health device in the world in just a year.

"Apps has seen a phenomenal rise in the store. The number has gone up from 500 apps eight years ago to 2 million apps now which have been downloaded 130 billion times," Cook said adding that "developers have been directly paid over $50 billion for the app downloads."

Before leaving the stage for his colleagues to explain about the different operating system updates, he emphasised the importance of developers again and said that "developers are a crucial part of our journey to enrich people's lives."

Apple's updates at the WWDC is expected to take on Google, Microsoft and Amazon.