More Proof that Apple is Preparing to Launch New version of iPhone

We had reported that Apple might launch the new version of iPhone in June based on on Phil Schiller's, Apple’s Senior Vice President of Worldwide Product Marketing statement to David Pogue of New York Times at Macworld 2009.

We are now getting more proof that Apple is preparing to launch new version of the iPhone. Greg Yardley, founder of Pinch Media which provides iPhone developers with ad serving and analytic tracking software to embed within iPhone applications; reported that one of their users has detected the new version of the iPhone.

In addition to this, MacRumors also discovered that Apple's iPhone Firmware 2.2.1 has reference of the next generation iPhone which has been designated "iPhone2,1".

Greg Yardley reported on Pinch Media's blog:

"Recently, one of the users of Pinch Analytics noticed the string “iPhone 2,1″ appearing in their version reporting, and realized that if Apple stuck to its naming conventions, this might be the next version of the iPhone."

He also gave some interesting information about what appears to be the next generation iPhone:

• the first time an application using Pinch Analytics was run by a ‘iPhone 2,1′ device occurred back in early October 2008;
• applications using Pinch Analytics were ran by ‘iPhone 2,1′ devices very sporadically until mid-December 2008, when the pace picked up slightly;
• to date, a few dozen distinct ‘iPhone 2,1′ devices have run almost two dozen different applications using Pinch Analytics;
• when ‘iPhone 2,1′ devices run applications using Pinch Analytics’ optional geolocation tracking, they’re almost exclusively located in the south San Francisco Bay Area;
• while most of the sessions have been made from wifi connections, there’s been a few connections over AT&T’s network, so presumably this device handles both;
• the applications that have been ran by Pinch Analytics don’t share much in common, except for their size — they’re among the larger applications to use our stuff, with hundreds of thousands to millions of unique users.

This comes close of the heels of a discovery by MacRumors who found hidden strings of the next generation iPhone which has been designated "iPhone2,1" in iPhone firmware 2.2.1 which was released by Apple couple of days back.

MacRumors goes on to explain:

Apple uses these models numbers to distinguish between different hardware models. The original iPhone carries the model number of "iPhone 1,1" while the 3G iPhone is labeled "iPhone 1,2". These numbers do not change for simple storage increases and instead represent functionally different devices. Similarly, the iPod Touch was originally introduced as the "iPod 1,1" and the most recent hardware revision was labeled "iPod2,1". The 2,1 iPod Touch added a speaker, volume controls, microphone support and a much faster processor than the 1st generation model. This new model number can be found in the USBDeviceConfiguration.plist in an unencrypted firmware.

We had also heard rumors that the next generation iPhone could come with Quad-Core processors and next iPhone firmware version i.e. iPhone firmware 3.0.

What do you think?