14 DAY TRIAL // Windows developers, be on the lookout because Apple is out to get you. You might end up developing for Mac OS X 10.5. Well, I guess it could be worse... However, the Cupertino-based company is indeed looking to increase the ranks of Mac OS X developers, and for that it is willing to turn to Windows and even Linux builders.
With the agenda for the WWDC lined up, Apple will precede Microsoft's own developer conference by a few months. Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference will take place from June 11 to 15, 2007, in San Francisco. Moscone West in downtown San Francisco will be the stage and the center of the Mac universe in June, while Microsoft's own conference is scheduled for October in Los Angeles.
The target audience for Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference are developers and IT professionals from around the globe, but this year, the Cupertino-based company will pay special attention to convincing Windows and Linux developers to switch sides to Mac.
The technical evangelism fiesta for Mac OS X Leopard will not address exclusively Apple's core community of Mac developers but will expand to the developers for rival operating systems. Ron Okamoto, the company's vice president of worldwide developer relations revealed that Leopard Tech Talks address commercial developers, in-house developers, scripters, and web developers that, in essence, are non-Mac developers.
As far as technical evangelism is concerned, Microsoft has the upper hand, and the volume of Windows developers far outweighs that of any other operating system. Still Apple won't back down from a fight. Intel based Macs have been slowly increasing Apple's OS market share, and one solution to boot popularity is to convert or at least convince Windows developers to build for Leopard.