Arguably the most popular mobile device on the planet; Apple"s next generation of iPhone is rumoured to already be under development.
According to the Apple rumour site, MacRumors.com, Apple have begun field testing their new version of the iPhone. According to the site, iPhone developer Pandav informed MacRumors that they have spotted usage records for an unreleased iPhone in their application analytics"s. The application which revealed the possibly updated model was an iPhone application named iBART - a public transportation guide for the San Francisco train system.
PinchMedia who provides the analytics for the application in question breaks down customer usage including what specific devices are being used to display the application.
This list of devices is reported to developers using internal device identification numbers assigned by Apple. In this case, "iPhone3,1" was first spotted in Pandav"s usage logs in November. This version number - "iPhone3,1" as a device identifier does not match up with any models of the iPhone being currently shipped to service providers and customers. The last iPhone released to the public was the iPhone 3GS which carries the identification string "iPhone2,1".
According to MacRumors, References to version "iPhone3,1" were first discovered in the iPhone firmware files back in August, but this seems to be the first time that it has been spotted "in the wild".
Similarly, Apple began testing the iPhone 3GS (iPhone2,1) back in October of 2008 about 8 months ahead of its launch. At the time, the usage was similarly focused in the San Francisco Bay Area where Apple is located.
There have very few details as to what the next generation iPhone might include, in terms of features. Although early rumours have suggested a multi-core processor that may enhance performance significantly. There have also been rumours of Verizon compatibility as early as mid 2010.