Microsoft: If we ‘Build’ a new developers conference, will they come?
Microsoft execs told developers earlier this year that there would be a new developers conference happening in mid-September 2011. But until this evening, details about this until-now-unnamed event were relatively few.
Context & Ripple Effects
Microsoft executives flagged a new mid-September 2011 developers conference months ago but kept the event unnamed and undetailed until this evening's announcement. The reveal lands days after Microsoft showed next-generation Windows, code-named Windows 8, in public for the first time at the D9 conference, giving the September gathering an obvious headlining act.
The timing matters because the confirmed early look at Windows 8's major new features points toward a touch-first redesign, and a separately reported — though unconfirmed — requirement that chipmakers working on Windows tablets pair with no more than one PC maker each suggests the hardware side of the story is still being negotiated. With analysts expecting Windows and Office licenses to remain Microsoft's core revenue while Azure and Office 365 supplement growth, this conference is where Microsoft has to convince developers the next Windows is worth building for.
First-order effects
- Developers finally have a date and a venue to plan around, converting weeks of speculation about the unnamed September event into registration logistics and travel decisions.
- The conference becomes the first large-scale opportunity for developers to get hands-on time with Windows 8 following its debut demonstration at D9.
Second-order effects
- If the reported one-PC-maker-per-chipmaker rule for Windows tablets proves accurate, the September developer audience becomes the stage where silicon vendors and OEMs signal which tablet partnerships survived that constraint.
- Microsoft can use the same stage to pitch Azure and Office 365 alongside Windows 8, bundling the client-platform story with its enterprise cloud push rather than running them as separate narratives.
Third-order effects
- Naming a dedicated flagship conference points toward Microsoft consolidating its fragmented developer-event calendar into one annual tent, mirroring the single-show model its platform competitors already run.
- If the pattern holds, the conference cadence itself becomes a strategic instrument — each fall edition functioning as the public checkpoint for how far the touch-first Windows rebuild and the cloud transition have progressed against a license-revenue base analysts still expect to dominate.
The trend: Microsoft is rebuilding its developer relations around a single annual flagship conference timed to major Windows releases, replacing scattered events with one tent as it pivots toward touch-first Windows and cloud services.