June 09, 2008 is Apple’s WWDC, and everybody is waiting anxiously to hear what new products will be announced. Most of the talk has been about the next generation iPhones. But I’m more interested in what is in store for the Macintosh operating system for the future. Rumors are that 10.6 will be previewed for the first time with an expected release date given for January 2009.

The rumors seem to indicate that 10.6 will not contain as many new features as the last couple of major updates, but will focus more on security, speed and stability. That’s great, but I suspect there will be at least a few advances unveiled to make all the fanboys salivate. The only question though will be what price point it will come in at if it actually doesn’t add any new features. Recent releases have been priced at $129, but without new features it remains to be seen if Apple can expect that kind of price point to move.

The rest of the rumors seem to focus on changes to the dotmac internet service Apple currently sells. It has long been criticized for not offering enough for its price point of $99, and rumors have been swirling that it is about to undergo a name change as well as feature growth. Perhaps it will finally be considered a worthwhile purchase.

Nobody, to my knowledge, has been discussing the iWork suite of products, but this conference seems to me to also be an ideal time to unveil the next generation of that particular product. I’m expecting to see Numbers, the suite’s spreadsheet program, take a step forward in features to make it more competitive with Microsoft Excel. I also can’t help but wonder, in a world where online applications are becoming more and more the rage, if some sort of interactivity with dotmac, or whatever it is to be called, might not be unveiled.

We’ll find out tomorrow what is in the cards for the near future at Apple. Jobs gives his keynote at 10AM pacific time, 1PM eastern.