Apple’s WWDC 2011 Predictions

Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) starts June 6, bringing a huge number of iOS app developers from around the world together.

According to Apple’s WWDC webpage, the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) showcases the 'latest innovations and the newest technologies in iOS and Mac OS X.'

But what does that mean for you? Well, a whole lot of new developments on the mobile platform and the possibility of a new iPhone if the rumours are to be believed.

The keynote speech, traditionally hosted by Apple CEO Steve Jobs, has become one of the most important talks in the tech calendar.

Since the original iPhone was first announced in 2007, Apple has revealed ‘one big thing’ in every edition of WWDC. Last year it was the iPhone 4.

Now this year, rumours are flying that Apple will announce the iPhone 5 and that's clearly motivated developers to buy tickets event.

The 5,000 alloted ticket sold out in less than 10 hours after they went on sale on March 28th, 2011, and although the rumour mill is working overtime, we doubt the iPhone 5 (or even iPhone 4S) will be launched at WWDC.

So what could we expect this year? Here are our predictions.

The keynote speech
So far Apple has neither confirmed nor denied that Steve Jobs will deliver the keynote speech.

The only time Steve skipped WWDC was in 2009 due to health issues, so our guess is he will be there.

Another option for hosting the keynote is Phil Schiller, senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing at Apple, Scott Forstall, senior vice president of iOS, or Craig Federighi, vice president of Engineering for Mac OS X.

The Big Announcement
Unlike last year, this year won’t see any hardware release. This year’s WWDC is all about software.

We predict Mac OS X Lion for desktop will be officially released alongside iOS 5. We doubt the iPhone 5 (or iPhone 4S) will be a topic of discussion.

iOS 5
So, what can we expect from iOS 5? Rumour suggests it will include more Mac OS X features, such as a more robust Game Center, live widgets and more customisation to keep it in line with competitor smartphone platforms.

iCloud
If it’s Jobs presenting, you should expect to hear his trademark ‘one more thing’ announcement. This year, it could well be iCloud. So what’s iCloud?

This is Apple’s streaming music service that apple is claiming could be the future of recorded music.

Rumour suggests that armed with licenses from the music labels and publishers, your existing iTunes music collection will be scanned and mirrored on Apple servers.

If the sound quality of a particular song isn’t good enough, Apple will be able to replace it with a higher-quality version.

You'll then be able to stream your songs and albums directly to Macs, iPhones, iPads, and perhaps someday even in cars.