News: WWDC to Focus on Software, No iPhone?

Say it isn’t so, Apple! According to a report over at The Loop, it seems that the focus at this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference will be the updates to Mac OS X and iOS, and maybe not even releases. If you read the tagline, it’s very carefully worded.

According to Jim Dalrymple from The Loop, it seems that Apple may be moving in a different direction:

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.
Apple said that Mac OS Lion would ship in the summer of 2011 and all indications are that they are still on track to deliver the operating system during that time. WWDC will probably be about the time the company is getting into the final stages of development, before hitting the GM stage.

One reason may be the treat of competition:

At past WWDCs, Apple might show off a new piece of hardware, but Gartner analyst Michael Gartenberg warns about getting too caught up in the past.

“You get caught up in patterns, and it holds true, until it doesn’t,” Gartenberg told The Loop. “There is no reason for Apple to follow a predictable yearly pattern, and it keeps their competition off guard a little bit.”

Although the conference takes place every summer, it is really a show for developers and not consumers. Apple has used the show in the past to introduce new iOS iterations, along with the iPhone 3G, 3GS, and 4, but giving a preview of Mac OS X 10.7 Lion and iOS 5 really make sense for what the show’s core audience includes.

Tickets are now available for $1599 for the June 6-10 conference.