Mac users and developers shouldn’t worry about Apple focusing only on iPhone OS, after all. Since Apple dropped the Mac category from this year’s Apple Design Awards (ADA) at the upcoming WWDC, people worried that Steve might only care about iPhones and iPads - leaving the Mac behind forever. Ars Technica even launched its own Design Awards for Mac applications.

Matthias Gansrigler, developer of Flickery for Mac, sent us a copy of an email conversation he’s had with Steve Jobs about the ADAs at the WWDC.

Original message:

Dear Mr. Jobs,

My name’s Matthias, developer of flickery (www.flickeryapp.com).

Is there any particular reason Apple has dropped the Design Awards for the Mac? Any plans to have them again in the future?

Thank you very much for all the great work you and your company has been doing,

Greetings from Vienna,

Matthias Gansrigler

—-

Jobs’ Response:

We are focusing primarily (though not exclusively) on iPhone OS this year. Maybe next year we will focus primarily on the Mac. Just the normal cycle of things. No hidden meaning here.

So it’s just the normal cycle of things, and you shouldn’t worry about Apple ditching the Mac - that’s what Steve is saying. What got my attention though is the “maybe next year” part. When Steve replies to emails, and especially when he’s replying to a well known developer, he knows that his reply is going to be posted somewhere. My best guess is that he was indeed waiting for an email like this to “publicly” tell everyone that we’ll see Mac OS X 10.7 in some way at WWDC 2011, as also predicted by John Gruber weeks ago.

Apple loves Mac developers and loves the Mac. You just have to wait until next year to see what’s coming.