Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer

Windows Blue, the next version of Windows, has been leaked like crazy the past few days but Microsoft has taken its sweet time to publicly acknowledge that such a product exists. Well, today it finally did so, and on top of it, the company announced its next major Build conference for developers.

Microsoft has released a lot of major products in the past six months, including Windows 8, Windows Phone 8, and the new Office 365/Office 2013, so the company needs to continue wooing developers to build apps and integrations for these products.

The Build conference will be held June 26-28 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. Registration for the event will open at 9 a.m. PT on Tuesday, April 2 at www.buildwindows.com. Tickets will cost $1,595 for the first 500 to register and then $2,095 for anyone else.

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“At Build, we’ll share updates and talk about what’s next for Windows, Windows Server, Windows Azure, Visual Studio and more,” Microsoft corporate VP Steve Guggenheimer said in a blog post today. “Build is the path to creating and implementing your great ideas, and then differentiating them in the market.”

Windows Blue is rumored to be released in public preview and then in full form this year, so the Build conference announcement pairs well with Microsoft’s acknowledgement of Blue. Ideally, Microsoft could use the Build conference to show off all the new features of Blue, give it a real name, and announce a ship date.

Steve Ballmer photo via Sean Ludwig/VentureBeat

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