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Microsoft's BUILD developer conference is almost here (save the date, September 13). It's going to be a big event for Microsoft and the official debut of Windows 8 (c`mon, you know there's going to be a developer beta).

Apple could spoil it all, with one of its famously-timed leaks or official product announcements. With iPhone 5's launch expected as soon as October, timing would be right for an Apple spoiler. Blogger, news media and Wall Street obsession about Apple is sure to succumb to a competing gravity well that pulls attention and online posts/print stories from Windows 8 during its special week.

In my six-plus years covering Cupertino here and elsewhere I can tell you I did not expect to write a story like this for quite a few more years yet. Apple is Steve Jobs, and Steve Jobs is Apple.

But let's talk turkey here: Jobs' health has been an issue, almost a morbid fascination among the tech press. Whole stories were devoted to analysis on his appearance as it obviously changed from keynote to keynote.

Several months ago, a mysterious tablet by a mysterious company began showing up in a campaign called "Who is TabCo?" which included fake focus group videos, a video that poked fun at Apple engineer Gray Powell who lost his iPhone 4 prototype at a bar last year, and a sky writer at Apple's WWDC conference. The videos purportedly advertised a new tablet, but said nothing about the device or the company that made it.

As at turns out, "TabCo" is Fusion Garage, the company responsible for the fiasco that began as the CrunchPad and ended as the JooJoo, a tablet which reportedly only 90 people had ordered before it began its end-of-life.

Apple's newest operating system, Mac OS X 10.7 "Lion" is coming next month, with Apple passing big savings to customers. But you'll need v10.6 "Snow Leopard" to get it. The announcement came earlier today during Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference.

Lion will be distributed as a software download through the Mac App Store, which is available as an add-on to Snow Leopard. Mac App Store is built into Lion. The in-app upgrade is a new distribution mechanism for Apple, and the company is passing on savings to its customers. Apple offered v10.6 Snow Leopard as a $29 upgrade from v10.5 Leopard on DVD. More typically Apple charged $129 for a single license and $199 for 5-license Family Pack.

During today's Apple Worldwide Developer Conference, Scott Forstall, senior vice president of iOS software, announced that to date 200 million iOS devices have shipped. Apple also shipped 25 million iPads in the first 14 months. Forstall used the data points to prepare the audience for the introduction of iOS 5.

Forstall offered other important data points:

In a simply unprecedented announcement -- well, since founder Steve Jobs' return as chief executive 15 years ago -- Apple tipped off a new product coming next week. Before Wall Street's opening bell this morning, the company dropped a press release explaining that Jobs would present next week's Worldwide Developer Conference keynote and that the new iCloud service would be announced. Jobs and team also will unveil Mac OS X "Lion," which was expected, and the next version version of iOS.

From a competitive buzz perspective, surely Apple is looking to steal some thunder coming from Computex, which opened earlier today in Taipei, and the D9 conference, which starts tonight here in California. Both venues will produce major news ahead of WWDC. Intel kicked off Computex by announcing new chips, a new tablet platform and Ultrabook, a portable category competitively aimed at Apple's MacBook Air and iPad. Google Chairman Eric Schmidt will be D9's first-day headliner. Apple has little to no direct presence at either event.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has let the cat out of the bag -- again. Microsoft's biggest breacher of new product information calls the next big operating system "Windows 8" and reveals that it's coming "next year." Ballmer has done this kind of thing before, causing massive, collective PR staff heart failure and rapid response along the lines: "that's not what he meant." I wonder what the excuse for Ballmer's big mouth will be this time.

Ballmer made the missives rather oft-handely earlier today to Microsoft Developer Forum attendees in Tokyo. In context, he speaks about the present: "We're obviously hard at work on the next version of Windows. Windows 7 PCs will sell over 350 million units this year. We've done a lot in Windows 7 to improve customer satisfaction. We have a brand new user interface. We've added touch, and ink, and speech."

Today, the air is flush with rumors -- now from three credible journalists -- that iPhone 5 won't debut during Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference 2011, in June. Rumors like these are great for generating pageviews and for sending some Wall Street analysts or Apple shareholders into cardiac arrest. But other than a few 911 calls for emergency services, does it really matter?

Technically, there is no iPhone 5 delay, contrary to reports about one. Apple hasn't announced a release date, so there can't be a delay. Now there is, based on four previous releases, reasonable expectation iPhone 5 would debut at WWDC and ship in June or July. That has been Apple's pattern for the four previous models, but it's not beholden. The rumors also put iOS 5's delivery later, too. That certainly makes sense. Why not have one but the other?

This morning, Apple announced that Worldwide Developer Conference 2011 will be June 6-10 in San Francisco. "Join us for a preview of the future of iOS and Mac OS X" Apple's WWDC 2011 info page proclaims. Which has me scratching my head. What about all those rumors that Mac OS X 10.7 "Lion" is near golden master. Isn't the future coming sooner?

Apple is known for being indirect -- and, yes, secretive -- where the subtlest information in an announcement can convey other meaning, or rumormongers make subtleties to mean more than they should. So I'll watch with interest to see how the Mac fan club of bloggers and journalists interprets Apple's press release quoting Phil Schiller, senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing, and not CEO Steve Jobs. Remember, Jobs is on medical leave. Surely someone will ask if this means he won't give the keynore. Relax the interpretations. WWDC 2011 is months way, I say.

A day after Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced the iPhone 4, it's time for a reality check. Lots of people have questions, and we have answers -- even to stuff some readers might not have asked for. The list is more strategic than speeds-and-feeds informational. But first, quick links to yesterday's Betanews stories:

Additionally, over at my Oddly Together blog, I consolidated my tweets (and others' responses) during Job's keynote. My tweets -- quick reactions in real time -- are foundation for this post. I hadn't thought of Twitter as a notepad before, but I suddenly see the utility. Others might try using Twitter this way: Punch out quick inspirations as they come and collect them later for other use.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs gave one of his better sales pitches during the Worldwide Developer Conference keynote earlier today. He had to. Gizmodo's iPhone 4 prototype series revealed the major details. Other than the gyroscope, iBooks and iMovie for iPhone, Jobs shared little that wasn't already known or reasonably guessed from Gizmodo's reporting about iPhone 4.

That's not to say the knowing spoiled the presentation. Jobs is simply too good a marketer. He has an amazing skill at emphasizing benefits while overlooking or diminishing shortcomings. Today he exerted a remarkably strong Reality Distortion Field, and it caught some tech users. Robert Scoble posted yesterday: "Back to Steve Jobs. If I were him I'd worry that I've lived without my iPhone for seven days so far and I haven't missed having the crappy cell phone service from AT&T, not to mention I like having the extra features of the Android OS that aren't yet available on the iPhone." Three days earlier, Scoble posted about his "experiences without an iPhone for six days so far." Bottom line: "Living without the iPhone has been a lot easier than I expect." But Jobs' WWDC keynote's RDF washed over Scoble, who today tweeted: "Is this enough to get me to give up Android? It has me itching."

As anticipated, Steve Jobs unveiled the iPhone 4, at WWDC on Monday, and although we knew most of the details, there were some surprises. Here's what you need to know:

1. Design

The life cycle of smartphones has reached the point where a single year means the difference between cutting edge and cutout bin, and Apple looks to be following -- if not driving -- that trend.

When the iPhone 3G S debuted last June, the price of the iPhone 3G was slashed to $99. Today, one year later, we're seeing the same thing happen to the 3G S.

Apple's aloofness is world famous. The company doesn't exactly buddy up to the media like Microsoft does, and it doesn't keep a running dialogue with the public like Google does. It communicates directly with only a handful of reputable media outlets, and uses a predictable routine of product launches where it can address the public in measured doses.

One of these doses is Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) expected to take place on June 28, 2010. In 2007, this was the event that Apple used to debut the original iPhone and its availability on AT&T. Then in 2008, Apple used WWDC to unveil the iPhone 3G. In 2009, it was used to unveil the 3G S. It is essentially Apple's annual "iPhone event."

Apple has posted its earnings for the third quarter of the 2009 fiscal year, which amounted (once again) to the best non-holiday quarter in Apple's history. The company's revenue grew 12% over last year to a total of $8.34 billion, with a net profit of $1.23 billion.

During the quarter, Apple saw record-setting adoption of Macs and iPhones by consumers, thanks in large part to the price cuts on the lower end of both lines. Wall Street anticipated a 3% contraction in Mac sales, but the company actually grew by 4% over last year, with a surge in sales taking place after the WWDC price cut announcements. During the quarter, 2.6 million Macs were sold, nearly meeting the company's all-time quarterly sales record.