Microsoft confirms Build 2018 will start a day before Google IO

Microsoft Build 2018

Microsoft has confirmed that it will host its 2018 annual Build developer conference on May 7 through May 9 this year in Seattle, Washington.

(Note: this story has been updated since its original publishing to reflect the most recent developments.)

Those dates overlap with Google’s IO 2018 developer conference in San Francisco, set to run May 8 through May 10.

The news of the potential dates for Microsoft’s event first came to light via a leak on Twitter. This leak was then corroborated by The Verge, which simply reported the news as an official announcement albeit without any verifiable source.

Here's Microsoft's tweet confirming the dates:

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What does this all mean? We now know that Microsoft and Google are going to be fiercely competing for not only developer attendance but for their respective share of the tech news cycle on those days.

As for what to expect from Build 2018, we’ll likely get in-depth previews of features to be released in the next late 2018 release of Windows 10, as what we now know as the Spring Creators Update could launch a month or more in advance of the event, just as the Creators Update of 2017 preceded its respective Build conference by a similar length of time.

If the past few Build conferences are anything to go by, don’t expect to see any flashy new hardware at Build 2018 – this conference is normally reserved for the developers, not the customers.

Via MSPoweruser

Joe Osborne

Joe Osborne is the Senior Technology Editor at Insider Inc. His role is to leads the technology coverage team for the Business Insider Shopping team, facilitating expert reviews, comprehensive buying guides, snap deals news and more. Previously, Joe was TechRadar's US computing editor, leading reviews of everything from gaming PCs to internal components and accessories. In his spare time, Joe is a renowned Dungeons and Dragons dungeon master – and arguably the nicest man in tech.