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When it comes to Apple rumors, things change fast the closer we get to alleged announcement dates.  Next week’s 2012 World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC) has fired up the usual suspects, who are positively humming with speculations leading up to the event.  Some of the chatter is absurd, but some of it could have a sound base in reality.  One of the revived rumors suggests Apple may be preparing to announce a new iPhone with a 4” Retina display and HD camera.  If it turns out to be true, we still might not see the new iPhone until September.

Some critics suggest that Apple may lose out by only going to 4” in display size for the iPhone, since bigger has been better for some time now, and 4.3” seems to be the acceptable “small” now.  Our prediction is that Apple will stun and amaze by announcing a 4.3” or 4.5” display, a radically redesigned form factor (imagine an iPhone more like an iPad 2 or iPod Touch,) and edge to edge display.  It could happen. In fact, it needs to after last year’s disappointing iPhone 4S fiasco.

Additional rumors point to the possibility of a smaller version of Apple’s insanely popular iPad tablet – one that would help the company to compete with a slew of Android tablets that have seen decent sales in the past year, presumably due to their lower entry-level pricing and compact designs.  There is an in-between market for these tablets.  Just look back at the way the Amazon Kindle Fire took off right before the holiday retail season in 2011.  Other competitors who offer a more standard iPad sized tablet, like the Samsung Galaxy Tab, are finding success offering two sizes.  The Galaxy Tab comes in a 10” and 7” screen size.  This expansion would be a good move for Apple.

Apple plans to announce lots of other goodies at WWDC as well, including a revamped iCloud with additional features, updates to Mac OS X Lion, the release of Mac OS X Mountain Lion, and a preview of iOS 6, which will probably arrive slightly later than the new iPhone – and later than that for the iPad.

The Macbook Pro line is expected to see a bump as well.  Expect it to be thinner, lighter, and sporting the advanced Retina display technology introduced with the iPhone 4 the New iPad.  There could be even more surprises in store, and almost certainly will be.  At least we don’t have long to wait now.

Melonie McLaurin is a technology writer who blogs about Apple, Android, and gaming.  She currently writes for Nonstop Vid.  You can read more at her technology blog.