Apple will likely flaunt its new iPhone 3.0 software, as well as a new iPhone, at its annual Worldwide Developer's Conference to be held on Monday in San Francisco. Along side, the company is also expected to preview OS X Snow Leopard - the forthcoming edition of its operating system for Mac computers.

While the updated version of the iPhone last year at the conference had its predecessor in the name of competition, the iPhone to be launched this time round has a lot of the other smartphones to compete with - all those who have emulated some of the iPhone's superlative features, or have improved on them.

Expecting a possible mid-July availability of the new iPhone, analyst Gene Munster, of Piper Jaffray, said about prospective competition: "They had to come out with a new iPhone now, to one-up the Pre!"

Munster is of the view that the pricing of the new iPhone will be tiered - $149 for entry level model, and $299 for a premium phone with a video camera and higher capacity storage.

Analyst Charles Wolf, of Needham and Co, opines that with the focus of the smartphone market having swing from hardware to software, the software upgrade of the new iPhone would be of greater significance than a new iPhone handset. Wolf said that in the software arena, "Apple has an enormous lead."