A few weeks ago Gizmodo, the popular gadgets blog, managed to secure a preproduction fourth generation iPhone, which they dissected for the whole world to see. So, given that everyone more or less knows the hardware specifications of the next iPhone, some commentators wonder whether Apple CEO Steve Jobs will still impress the crowd at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference on 7 June, where he will likely formally unveil the next iPhone.

I'm of the opinion that Mr. Jobs still has a few tricks up his sleeve. Namely, while the world knows how Apple intends to improve the iPhone hardware — new case, second camera, etc. — very little is known about the software Apple has cooking in the labs to exploit these new hardware features.

For it's the software that makes or breaks today's consumer electronics.

When Apple introduced the iPod in 2001 a number of other companies sold products with very similar hardware specifications. It wasn't hard to find another music player with a hard disk for storing lots of music and a simple five button interface. But the iPod's singular software, married with a superior music jukebox, iTunes, made the iPod a far superior device.

Likewise, it's almost impossible to buy a mobile phone today without a large touch screen, a 3G cellular radio and other features found in the iPhone. But it's the iPhone that has proved a runaway success because the iPhone marries its hardware features with software that makes those features usable and utile.

Or look to the Android operating system. I would wager that most people care more about whether a phone runs Google's Android operating system — that is, uses Google's software platform — than care about the particulars of the phone running the Android operating system. Because it's the software that makes all the difference.

Hence, it's the software that will really make the fourth generation iPhone sing. For instance, mobile phones have had front facing cameras for many, many years. (The Sony Ericsson P990 from 2006 comes to mind.) But, as far as I know, they're not exactly widely used. It's not merely the presence of a front facing camera on the new iPhone that's something to keep an eye on. It's how Apple implements a video conferencing feature in software that will make video calling popular or leave the status quo as it is.

And, notably, neither Gizmodo nor any other news outlets have seen the software implementation that will likely steal the show in a few weeks time when Mr. Jobs takes the stage at Apple's developers conference.