Apple Inc has scheduled its annual developers conference for the second week in June, with plenty of buzz surrounding its product plans.

The company on Thursday announced the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference would be held June 8-12 in San Francisco. Apple will have more than 1,000 engineers on hand as it welcomes an expected 5,000 outside developers.

The event will focus on the new iPhone 3.0 software as well as Snow Leopard, the forthcoming operating system for Mac computers.

Although every Apple event is greeted with much anticipation in the consumer technology world, expectations seem to be running especially high this year.

Apple unveiled its new iPhone software and applications development kit last week, and some analysts expect the company to announce a new iPhone model at the developers conference.

At last year's gathering, Chief Executive Steve Jobs took the stage to formally unveil the second-generation, 3G iPhone. The device was an immediate hit with consumers, selling 6.9 million units in its first quarter on the market.

Apple, as in years past, did not immediately announce a keynote address for the conference. Jobs is on a medical leave of absence until the end of June.

When asked whether Jobs would be speaking at the event, a company spokesman said, As you know Steve is on medical leave of absence and there's nothing further to say.

Shares of Cupertino, California-based Apple closed up $3.38 at $109.87 on Nasdaq.

(Reporting by Gabriel Madway; editing by Richard Chang)

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