The sold out Worldwide Developer Conference kicks off today, with a key note presentation from the CEO Steve Jobs.

Rumour has it that Jobs will be announcing the next generation iPhone. I'm interested but not driven by this to be honest. The iPhone I have does the job, but it has some issues which limit it's functionality, which are mostly due to DRM paranoia and with the Shell implementation (which isn't as thought out as some might imagine, in fact if you use the iPhone for a few days you realise how disjointed the components are, and for example how limited the browser is, there are lots more quirks!).

It's reported that Jobs wanted to sell 10 million units, he's cleared 5 million, and now that a new phone is out, does he expect 5 million to renew and the other 5 million to buy-in? I can imagine those that are waiting will pick up the new iPhone quickly, but for those of us that have to literally bin a working and expensive phone for it's successor, well that's no small thing.

From what I read, the key features are 3G, corporate connectivity software, iPhone OS 2.0 (Ed: GPS) and a larger battery. Is this worth the complete upgrade cost? When you consider in the UK o2 has us locked in to a 1.5 year contract, and if you are renewing an existing o2 contract and had the "free phone" option then the iPhone still costs £300+. They did that for Generation 1 iPhone, I wouldn't be suprised to see them doing the same for Generation 2, and retailing it at the maximum price with no discounts or upgrade paths included.

Can't wait to hear them obsolete the Generation 1 iPhone (which I own), and to hear them say it's out of support. Blending time!