WWDC 2013: It’s All About iOS 7, OS X 10.9 And Updated Macs; No New iPhone Or iPad

Apple’s annual Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) 2013 is less than two weeks away, and if a new report from a well-informed Apple blogger is to be believed, the event will be all about iOS 7, OS X 10.9 and updated Macs.

Right on the heels of CEO Tim Cook’s appearance at the All Things Digital conference on Tuesday, The Loop’s Jim Dalrymple shared his expectations for this year’s WWDC, which is scheduled for June 10 - 14 at the Moscone West convention center in San Francisco. Cook revealed in his interview that Apple was going to roll out “the future of iOS and OS X” at the yearly developer conference next month, which led many to assume that a new iOS device could take center stage at the event.

However, Dalrymple, known for his reliable Apple connections, has a different opinion.

He believes that WWDC is a place for developers to get together, and that it’s not an ideal event for Apple to show off the latest iPhone or iPad, which, as the company’s flagship products, demand separate release events.

“So, don’t expect an iPhone or iPad at WWDC,” Dalrymple says.

He goes further, giving a strong message for fellow writers in the article’s footnote, saying, “If you write a story after WWDC stating that since there was no iPhone or iPad, the keynote was a bust, you are just stupid.”

Instead of a new iPhone or iPad, Dalrymple says, it would be better to “look squarely to the Mac side of Apple’s product line.” Since Apple is not expected to hold a special event for a Mac product, an announcement about a product update could fit well with Tim Cook;'s keynote at WWDC.

“That leaves us with the one thing that everyone does expect from the conference -- the introduction of iOS 7 and OS X. The operating systems are why most of the people attending WWDC go to the conference,” he said.

When it comes to iOS 7, a number of earlier reports have claimed that a major user interface, or UI, overhaul is on its way under the guidance of Jony Ive, Apple's hardware design chief, who was recently brought to the iOS' human-interface team.

In terms of OS X 10.9, rumors have it that the new operating system will mainly focus on various “power-user” enhancements and take core features from the iOS. The software will feature some UI alterations, but they are not expected to be drastic changes.

Echoing Dalrymple’s “no new iPhone or iPad” claim, Anandtech’s Anand Shimpi predicted two possible highlights of the event -- the next version of iOS and a new processor, code-named Haswell, under development by Intel.

“WWDC 2013 is about two things: iOS 7 and Haswell,” Shimpi tweeted.

Haswell is a fourth-generation Core architecture that supports three monitors and features OpenCL 1.2, DirectX 11.1 and OpenGL 4 compatibility, iDownloadBlog reported.