Apple's WWDC 2009 could have some surprises

Apple today announced that the 2009 World Wide Developer Conference would be held on the previously predicted dates of June 8th-12th at the Moscone Center in San Francisco.  Since Apple has dropped out of Macworld (and had a paltry showing this year), WWDC is THE event for us Apple watchers.

The headlining product will be Snow Leopard.  Snow Leopard is Apple's next generation operating system that was announced at last year's WWDC.  It won't run on the company's older PowerPC hardware and isn't supposed to have much in the way of new features.  It is focused mostly on optimization and under the hood work like Grand Central and OpenCL.

That isn't entirely the case however.  Apple has detailed a number of outward improvements in its Snow Leopard page including QuicktimeX and Exchange Support.  Apple is also widely believed to be adding additional features to its latest operating system.  

Marble is the codename for a rumored interface GUI overhaul that will see the Mac OS windows look more like the latest iTunes and iLife/iWork products.  It is also rumored to have design elements from the iPhone/iPod touch interface.

Also, Apple's iPhone/iPod touch  CoreLocation is rumored to be making its desktop operating system debut with additional multitouch functionality being built into the desktop OS.

There is even some speculation that Snow Leopard is not just being optimized for Intel, but also for ultra-low powered ARM processors.

Recent rumors from Boy Genius and others have mentioned that there is a Apple Netbook/Tablet type of device on the horizon.  Three different reports of a 10-inch touch screen heading into Apple products make this all the more plausible.

The iPhone platform also has some big things coming up.  The 30,000th app just went on sale and it is looking like around a billion apps will be downloaded by June. Apple can rest, however as other platforms are getting app stores and other app stores are even being built for the iPhone.

Apple also looks to have a partner in the world's largest mobile market, China, in big-mouthed China Unicom.  With the China news is news of some interesting features.  Other markets are coming as well.

New iPhones are traditionally announced at WWDC and everyone is expecting the same this year.  What will this year's model have that will make current iPhone owners jealous?

We've also seen that Apple hasn't revealed everything that iPhone 3.0 will include.  Surely there will be more surprises when the final OS is released.

Even AppleTV might see some surprises.

The biggest question mark, however, is will Steve Jobs make an appearance at the event??  His official six months of leave isn't over until late June but coming back early would be a good sign to everyone involved.