Well, that looks like the end for any final hopes of seeing the fifth generation iPhone at next week’s WWDC, as an Apple press release indicates the focus of WWDC’s keynote will be software and not hardware.

Here’s the official line:

Apple CEO Steve Jobs and a team of Apple executives will kick off the company’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference with a keynote address on Monday, June 6 at 10:00 a.m. At the keynote, Apple will unveil its next generation software – Lion, the eighth major release of Mac OS X; iOS 5, the next version of Apple’s advanced mobile operating system which powers the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch; and iCloud, Apple’s upcoming cloud services offering.

This lack of a physical product doesn’t make the event any less exciting though.  Apple treated us to a preview of OS X 10.7 Lion at their Back to the Mac event last year, where it was shown using elements familiar to iOS users such as multi-touch and a dedicated Mac App Store; so it’ll be fascinating to see how it has evolved over the last months.

As interesting as Lion is, at iPhonefreak we’re more excited about iOS 5, the latest version of the iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch operating system.  Very little has been revealed about its features, but most are hoping for a new notification system, plus rumors have begun to circulate concerning the introduction of widgets too.

In a somewhat unusual move, Apple has also confirmed the existence – and forthcoming launch – of iCloud, even putting its official name out there before the event.  Exactly what it will contain, and how MobileMe will be affected, is still unknown.  Finally, one of the best pieces of news to come from the press release is that Steve Jobs will be at the event to introduce these new products.

So, no new hardware at WWDC?  It certainly looks that way, as introducing Lion, iOS 5 and iCloud is sure to take up the majority of the keynote, and an iPhone or any other unseen Apple product wouldn’t be kept back as ‘one more thing..’, would it?

How do you feel about the WWDC line-up?