Apple iPhone 5: Potential WWDC Release-Date Announcement Looms as More Specs Emerge

**Editor’s note: Please click here for our latest roundup of iPhone 5 speculation.**

This week not only brought us supposed pictures of components of Apple’s next iPhone, but more information about iOS 6 the next version of Apple’s mobile operating system and internal specifications, including more RAM.

Apple has already said that it will focus on software at this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference, set for June 11-15 in San Francisco. The company is “far along” with iOS 6, sources tell 9to5Mac, which shows a shot of a maps application that reportedly offers the ability to view images in 3D.

The next iPhone will offer an improved processor and 1GB of RAM, the report says that’s twice what you’ll find in the iPhone 4S.

While most industry watchers expect Apple to reveal the iPhone 5 or whatever it will be called (“next iPhone, iPhone 4G, iPhone LTE, etc.) in the fall, fans and those providers who offer the device are surely hoping that Apple will return to its tradition of announcing new hardware at WWDC, a practice it at least temporarily abandoned last year. One analyst firm went out on a limb earlier this year, predicting a summer launch but it’s the minority opinion.

The iPhone debuted in the U.S. on AT&T’s network in 2007, and gradually spread to major carriers around the globe. Verizon Wireless got its hands on the device in early 2011, breaking AT&T’s exclusive stranglehold in America. Sprint followed late last year, and now a number of smaller carriers are getting it, including companies with prepaid plans.