Third-gen iPhone rumors roundup

It's not at the point where I'm coming across numerous iPhone-related rumors almost daily. Some of these make sense, others don't.

At the top of the list of rumors is that there's a new iPhone in the pipeline somewhere. Well, sure, that makes sense. After all, what's the alternative? That development has stagnated? Seems unlikely. In fact, the new version would have been on the drawing board before the current version hit the shelves.

The real question is not whether a new iPhone is in the pipeline, but when a third-gen iPhone would make an appearance. I'm told by semi-reliable sources that prototypes of the new models are already being tested internally, so that would put a new iPhone a few months away ... maybe as early as June, maybe as late as next year.

More rumors revolve around the hardware and software capabilities of the third-gen iPhone. Cut-and-paste, MMS and full Bluetooth support are rumored, but I think that it would suck majorly for existing iPhone users if they had to upgrade the hardware in order to get these features. Another prolific rumor is that the new iPhone will feature a multi-core CPU and/or GPU and an HD screen. I'm immediately dismissing the HD screen as pointless given the size of the screen. But what about multi-core CPU and GPU? Well, sure that would be cool for those folks who plan on gaming on their iPhone, but unless Apple can work miracles on the battery (and so far we've not seen any battery-related miracles) then a multi-core CPU or GPU would be a huge drain on the battery. Also, those people not into casual gaming (think business users ... ) are going to be paying for performance they're never going to use.

I'm looking forward to finding out two things about the new iPhone:

• Will the updates be revolutionary or evolutionary?
• Will the third-gen iPhone represent a cut-off point where some apps designed for the new iPhone won't work on older models.

I'd be willing to bet that Apple will play things conservatively. After all, iPhones are still selling well, and it's really not the time for any kind of upgrades that would significantly boost price.

Thoughts?