After writing Annual Apple WWDC Disappointment, several people have asked me what I do expect at the WWDC 2012 keynote, ignoring the rumors. So here it is, my WWDC 2012 keynote predictions, what I think in my opinion, without rumor or factual basis, will be covered at the WWDC 2012 keynote on Monday:

• Sales: Apple has had its best year ever, and Tim Cook will enjoy sharing the numbers. And he should!
• OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion: We’ll get a clearer release date and a top 10 new feature demo. At least 8 will be features we already know, and one will be a lot more on the Messages app. Maybe a new developer beta, but it’s not ready yet.
• iOS 6: The next iOS will be announced, without a release date (so that they can do it with the next iPhone), but us developers can get started developing for it. I do expect new maps, new background process options, and a new version of Siri. But after the US 4G marketing bungle, I expect the next iOS and iPhone to be a more world phone than a US one and so the next iOS update will be incremental software, not radically new.
• iCloud: It was announced last year, it will get more features this year. Now that MobileMe is gone, I expect iCloud to take on some of its features, such as photo galleries and maybe personal web hosting. But more, I expect that iCloud synching will just work better.
• Apple TV: Nothing new here, it was updated recently.
• Apple applications: I expect new versions of the iLife and iWork suites. Neither has been updated in ages (iWork was in January ‘09), and all would work better with iCloud (Their iOS versions already do). I do not expect any of the Pro applications to be updated, they’ll save that for another event.
• Hardware updates: I expect Mac Pro updates as we developers love our Mac Pro’s (see my The Last of the Workstations). And probably a 15" MacBook Pro update. But no laptop retina displays (or it’s going to cost me!).
• Steve Jobs: It’s been 9 months, and I think Apple will spend a small amount of WWDC keynote time just remembering him. And this will be the last time they bring Steve Jobs up in public.
• No “one more thing”: That’s it, no new product lines, no TV, just good old operating system and developer updates.

I also predict:

• Having a hard time following the liveblogs as the event’s networks fail. And watching the event video Monday evening to see what I missed.
• A large number of articles to be written on how disappointed people are in Apple’s announcements because they did not release insert magical made up feature here. Or that this insert same magical made up feature here was pulled at the last moment because it was not ready, so the made up sources did not lie.
• The share price to drop, because it always does.
• A bunch of blowhards saying how Steve Jobs did a much better keynote than Tim Cook, ignoring the fact that the last few keynotes were the Scott Forstall and Phil Schiller show as well, with Jobs as MC.

In the mean time, I’ll be ensconced in front of all my monitors from 1PM EST on Monday hanging on to every liveblog and tweet. Don’t call, don’t write.

And maybe, just maybe, Apple does have a surprise or two up their secretive sleeves. Wouldn’t that be fun.