This Year's Other Big Developer Conference

Earlier today, Apple announced that its Worldwide Developer Conference will take place in San Fransisco, from June 11-15. Microsoft's Professional Developer Conference is scheduled for Oct. 2-5, in Los Angeles.

No disrespect to Apple, but I look forward to Microsoft's event because of location. I usually book a hotel near Little Tokyo and bring back Japanese goodies for my daughter.

I asked Apple spokesperson Anuj Nayar for some juicy tidbit that might intrigue Microsoft developers. Apple folks give up few secrets. :(

"WWDC '06 was our largest developer's conference ever, and we look forward to topping it in 2007," he said. "We'll continue to keep developers updated as conference sessions and tracks take shape."

Apple's timing is interesting. The company said essentially nothing about the next version of Mac OS X, Leopard, at Macworld last month. Last year, Apple had indicated Leopard would come sometime in early 2007, presumably before summer. Microsoft's strategy is more one of talking about what's coming rather than what's been. So it will be interesting to see what Apple does, and whether WWDC will occur before the operating system's release (meaning a delay) or afterward.

Which situation probably doesn't matter. Apple's iPhone is scheduled to come out in June--and it would be a potentially good platform for developers, assuming the company opens it up. Timing would be right for WWDC.