Ballmer: I'm not going to WWDC

Contrary to a published report, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer will not be presenting at the Apple WWDC (Worldwide Developers Conference) in two weeks. But Microsoft nonetheless is still interested in providing tools to build Apple applications.

Speculation had centred on Ballmer appearing at the San Francisco event to talk about Visual Studio 2010 accommodating Apple's iPhone OS-based devices, which feature applications based on the Objective-C language. But a Microsoft twitter message on Thursday account rejected the notion of Ballmer speaking at the conference.

"Steve Ballmer is not speaking at Apple Dev Conference. Nor appearing on Dancing with the Stars. Nor riding in the Belmont. Just FYI," the tweet said. The company, however, is "looking into the specifics of Objective C support," a Microsoft representative said.

Visual Studio 2010 accommodations for Objective-C would benefit Microsoft, an analyst said, though Visual Studio currently does not support Objective-C development.

"If Visual Studio was to support Objective-C it would be a great strategic move for Microsoft," said analyst Al Hilwa, of IDC. He speculates Apple may have developed a Visual Studio extension for iPhone development or that it would make sense for Microsoft to do so.

"Ballmer, who is famous for understanding the importance of developers to Microsoft, may be searching for every angle to keep Microsoft in the game in the emerging smartphone world," Hilwa said.