iPhone 5 slated for Sept. release: analyst

"There have been, on average, 79 days between the software event and the iPhone hardware announcement," he said.

But it appears the summer conference, the Worldwide Developer Conference, is a focus on software, suggesting that a hardware unveiling is coming later on, in the fall.

Anticipation has been mounting for the new iPhone since the 4th generation was rolled out in June of 2010. While widely regarded as cutting edge at its introduction, competitors like Samsung and HTC have surpassed the iPhone 4 in terms of hardware specs.

Industry insiders have chimed in on what will be in Apple's next iPhone 5, but the consensus that the next phone will be a "super phone" is diminishing.

Apple's next iPhone will be "evolutionary not revolutionary," with perhaps a better camera and a different casing, but no 4G, or LTE, wireless modem, according to BMO Capital's Keith Bachman.

Writing to clients, Bachman explained that poor battery performance for LTE is "one of the reasons why we think Apple's LTE phone will come in 2012".

The sentiment was echoed from other industry watchers just last week from Jefferies & Co. analyst Peter Misek. Instead, it will be an upgraded iPhone 4, most notably with a faster processor and some updated specs.

"According to our industry checks, the device should be called iPhone 4S and include minor cosmetic changes, better cameras, A5 dual-core processor, and HSPA+ support," he writes in a research note.

The A5 processor is the same chip that Apple rolled out to power its iPad 2. As for LTE, he says the Qualcomm LTE chipset Apple would have used "is currently not achieving yields sufficient for inclusion in the iPhone 5."