In a related development, some updated Macs might come with Retina displays--the high-definition screens have been available only on iOS hardware so far. "Mountain Lion seems ready for that," Hockenberry said. "We'll see some hardware that takes advantage of the Retina displays."

: Don't expect this to hit the market until Apple releases a new iPhone, probably later this summer. But developers hope to get a peek at the upgraded software--and they especially want to see how Apple changes two related features--Siri and Maps.

Developers said they hope Siri, the iPhone's voice-activated digital assistant, emerges from beta--and becomes available for third-party developers to incorporate into their offerings. But they also expect that Siri may advance in baby steps.

"I'd think there will probably some (Siri) support added in iOS 6 but I'd bet that they'll be pretty restricted," said Guy English, a . "A full API for Siri is incredibly complicated on many levels and would involve extending the operating system in really big ways."

As far as Maps, it's been that Apple plans to bring the feature in-house instead of relying on rival Google for geographic data. "We have been waiting for some time to see what Apple will do with its various mapping acquisitions, so it will be interesting to see if we get some good news on that front," said Daniel Jalkut, the founder of