I stay away from Apple predictions, because I find that I’m usually wrong, but often surprised (in a good way) by the company, and I enjoy that.

Which makes this impending iPhone announcement a little less exciting for me as all of the leaked photos of the phone’s components have pretty much revealed most everything new about the phone.  While we won’t know anything until they actually announce it, here’s what is expected:

• The phone will have a larger screen in height, giving it more of a 16:9 aspect ratio, but no additional width.
• The phone will be slightly taller and thinner.
• The phone will have a new dock connector.
• It will be called the iPhone 5.

This last one about the naming of the new iPhone was only confirmed by the recent invitation to the event next week which has the number 5 as a prominent part of the graphic.  I had been leaning towards Apple dropping the number from the phone name, as they have recently done with the iPad.  This made some sense to me as they don’t number their computer or iPods in this way, and I thought that they would be aligning all of their products this way.  But they perhaps have a good reason for this as pointed out by Jeremy Herrman (via DF).

This may also lend credence to the rumor that Apple will announce it’s new 7″ iPad at a separate event in October.  This is not certain, but certainly seems likely.  I was bit disappointed when I first heard speculation that the smaller, rumored iPad would not be announced at the same time as the new phone, because I like an Apple keynote that is full of goodies.  But I understand the arguments, and it’s better now that that news is out of the bag instead of a boatload of investors driving the stock down after they’re disappointed that the smaller iPad isn’t announced along with the new phone.  (Imagine the stock price if they announce it now anyway!)

The problem I have with a keynote devoted entirely to the iPhone is the repetition we’re sure to endure.  If Apple stays true to their template of last year, once they get through updating their sales and share numbers (always fun), reveal the new phone and discuss the hardware, then we will move into the software.  Last year this section of the keynote from Scott Forstall was almost identical to the software presentations he gave during the World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC) only a few months before.  I am wondering if we will see the same thing at this year’s keynote to fill the time if they intend to focus primarily on the iPhone.  I understand that the WWDC is aimed at developers, and that this iPhone keynote is aimed at consumers, but the reality is that most people and journalists who are going to watch this keynote online already geeked out to the WWDC iOS 6  keynote, so they will be covering old ground here.

Other items in the rumor mill for imminent announcements over the next couple of months are new iMacs, which might be entirely possible, a new retina MacBook Air, which I doubt as the current model is still too new, and I’m not sure the battery is there yet to support the processing needed to drive all of the additional pixels.  New iPods are a possibility, and the 7″ iPad seems almost assured, although it seems we will have to wait until October for that.

Since I have veered into the prediction arena a bit here, I do have one prediction for the new iPhone which I have not seen anybody else write about.  I predict the new iPhone will support faster syncing over USB 3.

Alright, that’s all I’ve got.