by Henry Blodget – Thirteen years ago, Apple was almost a footnote to history–a once innovative company that had made a strategic misstep and been crushed by the corporate behemoth known as Microsoft.

Apple’s founder, Steve Jobs, had recently rejoined the company, after getting canned years earlier, when Apple’s collapse began. One of Steve’s early moves after returning was to launch a new branding campaign, one that took advantage of Apple’s status as a tiny underdog:

“Think Different,” Steve said.

And Apple’s renaissance began.

Two weeks ago, after an extraordinary 13 years, Apple’s market value surpassed Microsoft’s–an event that was nearly unthinkable in the 1990s. Apple’s revolutionary products–iPod, iPhone, iPad–are now ubiquitous, and Apple has become the most valuable tech company in the world. Apple’s dominance of the gadget-consumer’s consciousness is now so complete, in fact, that in many circles “Thinking Different” would mean buying a Microsoft product.

And today, in an annual event celebrated by Apple fanatics, Apple will be rolling out some of its latest innovations at its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC).

What’s on the docket? A new iPhone, for one. Along with a whole bunch of other likely announcements, which SAI’s Apple analyst Dan Frommer has detailed here.

Overall, Dan thinks this year’s WWDC will be a relative snooze, especially after the recent revelations about the next-generation iPhone.

But regardless of what specific products are announced today, Apple will likely continue to upend the traditional technology landscape. In the two months since the iPad was launched, the company has sold more than 2 million of them. iPhones and iPods are still going gangbusters, and Macs continue gain share in the laptop and desktop markets. If one counts those and other tablets and smartphones as “personal computers,” Microsoft’s share of the operating system market continues to dwindle, along with the remnants of its monopoly.

See Also: Here’s What Apple Will Announce At WWDC Today

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