January 30, 2009, 1:02 PM — Oh, Apple rumorsphere, will you ever learn? Cast your mind way, way back -- to, say earlier this month. Remember how we were all certain that new Mac minis and iMacs were on their way at Macworld Expo, because of strings that seemed to indicate this fact, tucked into obscure configuration files? Remember how that totally didn't happen?
Well, you don't remember, apparently, because everyone is suddenly all exercised about the new upcoming all-singing all-dancing iPhone that Apple is poised to unleash literally at any second. The evidence? There's a reference to an "iPhone2,1" device in the latest iPhone firmware, and software that analyzes ads served up by iPhone and iPod Touch devices has noticed an iPhone2,1 hardware identification string popping up from a few dozen users, mostly in the San Francisco area (where Apple is headquartered). People take this to mean that some exciting new phone with multicore processors is imminent. AppleInsider is the most breathlessly convinced of "major architectural changes", on the following logic: When Mac model numbers are incremented from 1,2 to 2,1, it means they get a new chip or architecture; therefore we will soon have an iPhone with [laundry list of things people have been expecting out of the iPhone for some time].
Convinced? I'm not, particularly after the whole Mac mini vapor. Here's what I think: Apple is almost certainly working on its next model iPhone, because that's what tech companies do. Some prototype gadgets are probably being used by testers, and probably identify themselves as "iPhone2,1." Whether those gadgets represent what will actually be sold, or whether they're even all built to the same specs, is impossible to tell. Meanwhile, the presence of "iPhone2,1" in a config file may just represent the knowledge that someday, some product with that designation is going to come down the pipe. Anything else is just speculation and smoke-blowing.
In other smartphone news, Microsoft is supposedly working on an improved Windows Mobile, and Dell is rumored to be prototyping smartphones based on Windows Mobile and Android. So, you know, we can't wait on iPhone2,1 forever, guys.
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