No iPhone 5 unveiling at WWDC 2011: report

Apple on Monday announced the 2011 World Wide Developers Conference date, as June 6 - 10 in the Moscone Center (West) in San Francisco. The press release states that WWDC 2011 would be used to "unveil the future of iOS and Mac OS."

That is perhaps the most interesting part of the announcement. In the past, WWDC has been used to introduce new hardware, as well, but as was noted earlier, it appears that iOS 5 is being pushed to the fall.

This seems to confirm what sources have told The Loop about WWDC being a software, not hardware event. In addition to iOS, Mac OS X 10.7 or Lion will be discussed at WWDC 2011, as well.  Gartner analyst Michael Gartenberg added that the past is not necessarily indicative of the future. He said:

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

Still, consumers have come to expect an iPhone release in the summer, and the fact that WWDC 2011 is not going to include any hardware does not mean that Apple won't have a separate event.

However, Apple usually doesn't send out invitations to big media events until the week just before the event. That means that right now, folks who were expecting the iPhone 5 this summer are in limbo,

This has been an extremely busy year for Apple, however, and perhaps that has pushed out the hardware dates. Apple released a Verizon (CDMA) iPhone 4 earlier, is still working on pushing out the white iPhone 4, and released the iPad 2 early than normal. That is a lot of hardware releases for the Cupertino-based company.

If rumors about an iPad 3 in September are true, that could also coincide with timing for an iPhone 5. That said, Macotakara.jp says its sources indicate that the iPhone 5 has not yet hit the full production stage, adding that it feels the iPhone 5 will not go into mass production until late in 2011 for an early 2012 launch.

That would match up nicely with a year from the Verizon iPhone 4 launch, and might indicate why Apple is even bothering with the white iPhone 4 (if it launches in the Spring, and the iPhone 5 were to launch in the summer, it would make little sense).

Once again, though, there's no way of knowing with Apple's secrecy.

Via: The Loop