WWDC 2011 officially announced – no new hardware?

According to the email that landed in my inbox late yesterday, WWDC 2011 – Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference will be held between the 6th and 10th of June at Moscone West, San Francisco. The invite features a large Apple logo filled with app icons and the teaser “Join us for a preview of the future of iOS and Mac OS X.“

Held around the same time every year WWDC offers the opportunity for Mac OS & iOS developers to network, and for Apple to share it’s latest innovations in software and hardware. And it’s the latter category that I’m most interested in. For example the 2005 WWDC saw the announcement of the first Mac to use Intel Processors, and last year’s was where the worst kept secret in Apple’s history, the iPhone 4 was officially revealed.

Up until recently it was thought that this years WWDC would see the introduction of the iPhone 5, but all the rumours seem to now point to an Autumn release. Those rumours do have some weight given that Apple still plans to release the much delayed white iPhone 4 this Spring. The fact that the iPhone 4 has only recently been made available to Verizon users in the US would also suggest we may have to wait a bit longer for the next version.

So will there be any hardware updates announced at this years conference? It doesn’t seem likely.

Obviously the iPad 2 has only just been launched, the MacBook Pro lineup has just been updated, and it isn’t that long since the MacBook Air was updated either. iPods tend to get updated together, and for the last three years this has been done in September.

Revisions to the Mac Mini & Mac Pro seem to be done without much fanfare, so that just leaves the iMac, which according to Mac Rumours could be with us before the conference – as early as mid April. That would suggest that the iMac is unlikely to see any changes to it’s form factor – any improvements will be on the inside only.

So based on the above, WWDC 2011 could be focussed entirely on Mac OS X Lion and the next version of iOS. What would you like to see announced?