The ever popular Apple Inc. is without a doubt one of the (if not the) most popular consumer tech brand out there at the moment. The company's annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) is set to kick off next week Monday, and while secrecy usually surrounds the event, we've got some details about this year's show.

Apple stated yesterday in a press release that among other Apple executives, the company's well-known CEO, Steve Jobs will be delivering a keynote address at the event. This is almost news in itself, as the CEO has been on extended leave due to illness since last year.

The company is set to unveil a number of exciting new products at the event, including its next generation desktop operating system (OS) dubbed Lion, the eight major release of Mac OS X.

Mobile Apple fans can also look forward to the first look at the company's new mobile OS in the form of iOS 5, which will appear in next generation iPad, iPhone and iPod touch devices.

While these are interesting announcements, they were expected. The one which really caught our attention revolves around the much rumoured iCloud, Apple's upcoming cloud-based offering.

Even a couple of days before release knowledge of iCloud is mainly based on rumours, although among iCloud's functionality it's expected to function as a cloud-based iTunes service allowing Apple customers to stream their music from the cloud from any of their various devices. It’s also expected to support video and movie streaming, but this is yet to be confirmed.

This is almost certainly not the only aspect of iCloud however, with a rumoured mashup between it and Apple's existing MobileMe cloud-based services expected. It’s expected to also include a wide range of cloud-based business tools supported by Mac OS X Lion.