Analyst predicts three new iPhones for 2009

Of all the new iPhone model rumours that have been circulating, this is perhaps the least exciting, but most likely.

Analysts from Canadian firm Canaccord Adams has hypothesised that we’ll see three new models released by Apple in 2009.

The first will be a simple memory upgrade to 32GB, which will be accompanied by a few new colours. This idea fits quite neatly with general hardware updates from mobile and game system manufacturers, and makes simple sense for Apple to keep up with trends.

The second suggests the hardware giant will return to the beginning with a re-release of the Apple iPhone 2G for Chinese territories.

It’s not unlikely that 3G connectivity will be retained, what with the provision only recently having been rolled out in China (and the country's love of being online), but the lack of GPS is likely to help get the device past the security conscious government.

The third proposed model takes us right back to the iPhone Nano theory, pointing out cases already being for sale that are a third the size of current iPhones. This concept sticks a little on the expected functionality – a miniature, voice-only model really wouldn’t be an iPhone, regardless as to how it was labelled and marketed.

Still, these rumours all sound quite feasible, and fit comfortably into the previous hardware update schedule we’ve already seen from Apple.