Steve Jobs won’t be delivering this years WWDC Keynote Address

Steve Jobs scheduled June return to his position as CEO of Apple generated a lot of speculation that Jobs might make an early return and deliver the keynote address at this year’s upcoming WWDC. Unfortunately those dreams were dashed last week when Apple released a press release stating that this years WWDC keynote will be handled by “a team of Apple executives, led by Philip Schiller.” Schiller did a nice job delivering the keynote at Macworld earlier this year, and the rest of Apple’s executive team has also proven to be more than capable of picking up the slack as Jobs continues to recover from an undisclosed conditoin. Nevertheless, a triumphant return by Jobs would have been a momentus event, but there is no doubt that Jobs has temporarily left the company in more than capable hands. At this years WWDC, Apple is expected to unveil details about its upcoming Snow Leopard operating system, in addition to focusing on the soon to be released iPhone OS 3.0 update. It’s also widely believed that Apple will use WWDC as an opportunity to unveil its latest and greatest iPhone, which is rumored to have gone significant hardware upgrades that include more RAM, a faster processor, a video camera, a higher megapixel camera with auto-focus, and last but not least, much improved battery life. Not everyone, however, believes that Apple will announce a new iPhone at this years WWDC. Apple analyst Gene Munster of Piper Jaffray believes that Apple will hold off on an iPhone announcement and will instead introduce new iPhone devices at a dedicated Apple event sometime later in June. While such a strategy would coincide nicely in terms of Jobs’ expected return, Munster doesn’t relay any hard evidence to support his assertion. Apple’s WWDC kicks off on June 8, and it will be interesting to see what Apple has in store, iPhones or not.