Yesterday, Apple announced its annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) would take place this year from June 6, 2011 to June 10, 2011 at San Francisco's Moscone West. Cupertino also said it would "unveil the future of iOS and Mac OS."
Some are starting to interpret this to mean that WWDC 2011 will be a software-only event. The Loop is quoting its own sources to confirm that the annual conference this year will not reveal any new hardware: no new iPhone, no new iPod, no new iPad, and no new Mac.
At previous WWDCs in June, Apple would typically reveal some new piece of hardware, most recently a new version of the iPhone. The first iPhone was released on June 29, 2007. The iPhone 3G was introduced on June 9, 2008. The iPhone 3GS was announced on June 8, 2009 and arrived on June 19, 2009 in the first countries. The iPhone 4 was announced on June 7, 2010 and released on June 24, 2010.
If the interpretations of no Apple hardware are correct, it could give competitors a window of opportunity to pull ahead. Late last year, Android passed the iPhone in terms of market share in the US. If Cupertino doesn't push out an iPhone 5, that gap is going to grow even wider.