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This isn’t so much news as it is something that should be totally expected. MacRumors is reporting that iPhone developer Pandev, creators of iBART, have found records of an unreleased iPhone in their app’s records. The model in question is “iPhone 3,1″, which we saw references to back in August. This is the first time this model has shown up in the wild.

The current top-end iPhone, the 3GS, is referred to internally as “iPhone 2,1″, and was reported being tested about this time last year as well. Basically, this news should come as no surprise because we all know an iPhone refresh is coming in 2010. It just confirms that Apple is doing their regular testing.

I predict that next year’s iPhone will be more than just a minor step forward like the 3GS. In 2010, Apple will have a more mature Android platform to compete against, and surely Palm will try to correct the mistakes of the Pre and Pixi. Windows Mobile 7 is also launching in late 2010, although at this point I wouldn’t blame Apple for writing that platform off entirely. If they have any direct competition in the mobile space, it’s Google’s Android.

[Source: MacRumors]