Apple has announced June 8-12 as the date for its annual WWDC (Worldwide Developers Conference) in San Francisco, and now that Macworld is no longer in existence, this remains the most-anticipated Apple event of the year. Do we dare hope for revelations of a new iPhone?
Although the WWDC is primarily a platform for Mac OS X and iPhone OS developers to share information, remember that it was at the 2008 WWDC that Steve Jobs unveiled the iPhone 3G.
This leaves us with a 50/50 possibility that for the 2009 event we could witness either Jobs’ return or, more likely, his final farewell. When he temporarily stepped down in January, his note to the public ended with: “I look forward to seeing all of you this summer.”
Following rumours that O2 UK’s free iPhone package could signal the exit of the old device, there is also a possibility that a new iPhone 3.0 handset is on the way.
One thing for sure is that Apple’s new OS X for the Mac – Snow Leopard – will be on show.
Snow Leopard, while not slated as a major overhaul, promises to improve system performance, and will give developers extra firepower with the addition of OpenCL (Open Computing Language).
Attendees and Apple fans are also hoping for the introduction of a Mac netbook or tablet device, something Apple has not entirely dismissed as off the cards, especially with COO Tim Cook slating the current crop of netbooks on the market as “inferior”.
As we all know from the introduction of both the iPod and the iPhone, Apple likes to watch the market develop before it leaps in with its own offering, so this may be one rumour that turns out to be true.
By Marie Boran
