There has been a whole lot of back and forth today about regarding whether or not Apple will announce its latest iPhone at WWDC this year.

Most folks were saying no, citing Steve Jobs’ absence from the conference this year. Instead, the Keynote will be given by Phil Schiller, Apple’s Senior VP of Worldwide Product Marketing. Prominent Apple analyst Gene Munster thinks the address will primarily deal with software (at a developer conference? No way!), specifically Snow Leopard and the iPhone OS 3.0. Munster expects Apple to hold a special event in late June, early July, which will herald the return of Jobs and the release of a new line of iPhones.

So why wait? We already know the iPhone App Store to be the fastest growing developer community in the world. Wouldn’t Apple want to let that massive developer base know about the new hardware they’ll be working with at…the developer conference? And what makes the Senior VP of Worldwide Product Marketing a bad choice to do this?

Dan Frommer, an analyst at SAI, agrees, and cites quite a few compelling reasons for Apple to roll things out in June. For starters, the first round of iPhone contracts expire in late June. Also, the Palm Pre drops later this month. What better time to get people to start thinking about some new hardware?