From the famous 'Redmond, start your photocopiers' jibe towards Microsoft a decade ago to the dismissal of the latest version of Google's Android operating system, Ice Cream Sandwich, as "a dairy product", Apple always enjoys teasing its rivals during a keynote presentation.
And it's playing to the gallery in doing so, of course. The 5,000 attendees are developers who create products for Apple's Mac or iOS computers; they believe in the company, to the point of obsession.
When the doors to the auditorium lift before a keynote, seasoned journalists like to watch 'the running of the geeks': hundreds of attendees sprinting towards the seats at the front. "It's like Pamplona," one told me with a smirk.
They cheer when exciting new features are announced and they would probably be willing to boo and hiss the competition if the presenters asked them to.
It is easy to make fun of their obsessive nature but these people are no fools. Mac and iOS developers are known for sharing the appreciation of design and attention to detail that Apple has made its hallmark. Many of them have been with Apple since the dark days of the mid-1990s, before the return of the late Steve Jobs. Now, they enjoy the support of one of most successful companies on the planet.
Apple's keynote didn't talk about stock prices and market caps. The emphasis is on the success of the app store and the $5bn that Apple has paid out to developers. Once you consider that Apple has taken its 30 per cent before that, you can see just how lucrative the app store has become.
The most significant announcements in a long, densely-packed keynote were the Retina MacBook Pro and the arrival of Apple's own maps application. The former shows that Apple is still thinking of ways to break new ground in computing, while the latter marks the end of the last significant area of cooperation between Apple and Google.
In the battle between the two, iOS 6, the latest version of Apple's mobile operating system, is not a revolution. In truth, many of the new features are already available to Android customers. What Apple did demonstrate, however, is that it is way ahead when it comes to getting the bulk of its users on the latest version of the operating system.
In December last year, Eric Schmidt, Google's executive chairman, said that developers would be writing for Android first in six months time. With the deadline passed, Schmidt's prediction hasn't happened and one reason is the fragmentation of Android. According to Google's own numbers, just seven per cent of Android users are on the latest version, compared with 80 per cent of iOS users, over roughly the same period of time.
There are so many Android handsets that even relatively new devices might not be compatible with the latest version of the OS or the newest apps. When Instagram launched for Android, for example, it did not support HTC's flagship One X handset.
Android fans will tell you to just 'root' your handset and install whatever version of the operating system you like. That removes the choke points of handset manufacturers and mobile networks, who in some cases have been less than keen to move users onto the latest version. Rooting your phone is all very well but it is hardly likely that the average smartphone user will bother, even if they know how.
It's a problem for the Android ecosystem and it gives Apple an advantage that it is happy to shout about. Ordinary users don't much care about which version of an operating system they are on until they realise that the latest hot app doesn't work on their phone.
That's not to say Apple doesn't have some problems of a similar nature but they are not of the same scale. Turn-by-turn navigation in its new maps app, for example, will work only on an iPhone 4S, a new iPad or an iPad 2. Still, the rule is clear: the most recent features will always work with the most recent devices and if you have an iPhone made in the last three years, then you will get the new operating system on the same day as everyone else.
When the iPhone was first released, there were no Android handsets of course, and Apple and Google happily partnered on the iPhone maps application. With its own operating system to drive, Google soon began reserving the best features of its mapping service for Android users. So Apple has built its own.
Apple is willing to invest to ensure that its users aren't getting second best. But in areas where the company is weak, such as social media, Apple partners with the important players. Adding Twitter integration last year and Facebook integration this year shows Apple's awareness that its customers want to be social. Ping, Apple's attempt at a social service attached to iTunes, has now been thoroughly usurped by Facebook integration.
When the doors open for next year's keynote, Apple is likely to have most of its users on iOS 6 and will be preparing to announce its new features. Google, meanwhile, is likely to still have just a small minority of Android users able to enjoy the cutting edge. And that's the real difference between the two operating systems.
