San Francisco  - Apple founder and tech icon Steve Jobs is set to return to his role as Apple CEO after taking six months of medical leave, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday.

The report appeared just days before Apple is expected to announce a new version of its iPhone at its Worldwide Developers Conference scheduled for Monday in San Francisco, but it's unclear whether Jobs will make an appearance.

The third-generation iPhone is expected to feature twice the storage capacity of its predecessor, support for recording and editing video, and the ability to copy and paste between documents.

Apple is also expected to reduce the price of its existing iPhones to 99 dollars or 149 dollars in a bid to increase its market share.

The new version's release comes as the iPhone faces a growing raft of challengers to its smartphone dominance, including a widely praised new phone from mobile computing pioneer Palm.

The Palm Pre hits stores on Saturday after being praised in the New York Times as "an elegant, joyous, multi-touch smartphone," and in the Wall Street Journal as "beautiful, innovative and versatile." (dpa)