A description of the 2011 MIX event read:

"MIX is a gathering of developers, designers, UX experts and business professionals creating the most innovative and profitable consumer sites on the web. Sessions range from technical, code-based topics to expert advice on content strategy, usability and design. Explore the future of the standards-based web -- join the conversation at MIX11."

However, in a Jan. 24 blog post, Tim OBrien, general manager of developer and platform evangelism at Microsoft, said:

"We have decided to merge MIX, our spring web conference for developers and designers, into our next major developer conference, which we will host sometime in the coming year.  I know a number of folks were wondering about MIX, given the time of year, so we wanted to make sure there's no ambiguity, and be very clear ... there will be no MIX 2012."

OBrien noted that Microsoft launched MIX in 2006 after coming up with the idea for the event at the close of the 2005 Microsoft Professional Developers Conference (PDC). The notion at the time was to focus on the Microsoft web platform, which at the time focused on Internet Explorer 6 and Silverlight.

However, now, "the notion that the 'web community' is somehow separate and distinct from the community of developers we care about no longer makes any sense," O'Brien said. "Some had even called out the existence of a separate web event as proof that we don't 'get' the web ... it's a fair point ... when we get developers together to talk about what we're doing in the platform, the web discussion should be part and parcel to everything we talk about."

In September 2011, Microsoft held its BUILD conference in Anaheim, Calif. in order to give developers a look at the development environment for the upcoming Windows 8 environment. But that remains an ongoing initiative for Microsoft. The next Microsoft developer event will take that message further and will purportedly include messaging about developing for the Windows Phone and Windows Azure cloud platform.

Added OBrien:

"As we look ahead to 2012 and beyond, the goal is to ensure that global Microsoft developer events are of the caliber that many of you experienced at BUILD last September, in addition to the thousands of online and local developer events we host around the world to support communities and connect directly with developers. We will share more details of our next developer event later this year. In the meantime, know that we are hard at work and will look forward to seeing many of you there."

Microsoft announced last December that its 2012 Consumer Electronics Show keynote would be the company's last, "because our product news milestones generally don't align with the show's January timing." As eWEEK's Nicholas Kolakowski points out, NIX was likely nixed because it didn't jibe with the Windows 8 schedule either: "Either that, or else Microsoft just happened to eliminate one major conference, and its long-running presence at another, for two completely different reasons."

According to Microsoft watcher Mary Jo Foley, "There is, however, going to be some kind of Microsoft developer event in calendar 2012, though Microsoft officials said they haven't yet decided on its name, date or location. I'd bet whatever it is will be anchored to the releases of Windows 8 and Visual Studio 2012."

Darryl K. Taft is a writer for eWEEK.

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