As inscrutable as Apple appears to be at times, there seem to certain inexorable patterns, ingrained rhythms that have established themselves over the years – like new iPods every September, and new iPhones announced every June at WWDC, a couple of months after Apple’s shown off the latest version of iOS.
Today, Apple officially announced the dates for its Worldwide Developers Conference. It’s in early June, as usual. Apple’s promising to show the future of Mac OS X and iOS. A shift is afoot, since we’d typically have seen the “future of iOS” by WWDC.
So it’s interesting that on the exact day Apple announces WWDC-and not a day before-a lot of well-connected people are hearing from various sources of theirs that there won’t be a new iPhone. Jim Dairymple:
Apple’s apparent focus on software in its WWDC announcement backs up what my own sources are saying about the annual conference. That is, expect a software show in 2011, not a hardware event.
MG Siegler (who first suggested iOS 5 wouldn’t ship until the fall), on the heels of Dairymple:
We’ve just heard the same thing as well.
And finally, John Paczkowski:
I’m hearing explicitly that this year it’s a software event.
I mostly find the extreme synchronicity between the timing of everybody’s sources to be interesting (I’m seriously not attempting to insinuate anything by noting this), but I think it’s getting safer and safer to say to start tamping down your hopes for a new iPhone announced in June. Upside: If there is a new iPhone, you’ll be super pleasantly surprised and feel awesome. [Digital Daily, Loop Insight