A commenter on a Chinese forum for Apple aficionados who claims to have a friend that works at iPhone manufacturer Foxconn says the prototypes of new iPhone hardware he has seen differ little in appearance from the iPhone 3G. The majority of the upgrades appear to be fairly modest updates to the internal hardware.

As previous rumors have suggested, the camera is said to be updated with higher resolution and autofocus, a digital compass is added, and the flash capacity will be doubled to 16GB or 32GB. The CPU supposedly will see a speed bump to about 600MHz and the RAM will be doubled to 256MB, resulting in performance that has "really improved." The 3.5" touchscreen and battery will "regrettably" be the same.

That Apple would do little to change the overall design or appearance of the iPhone should not come as a surprise. The iPhone 3G is only slightly different in appearance to the original iPhone, after all. And, while the forum poster—who goes by the handle patapon200—characterizes keeping the same 480x320px, 3.5" touchscreen as "very regrettable," changing anything about the screen would radically change the user interaction that is so focal to using an iPhone. It would likely break compatibility with the tens of thousands of apps in the App Store, too.

If this information is right, the new iPhone may not be a compelling upgrade for many iPhone 3G users—though a camera upgrade has us here at Ars excited. Still, it would definitely make a great smartphone for any new user. Keeping the hardware mostly the same extends Apple's platform for iPhone OS, which, along with the deluge of third-party apps, is where most of the iPhone magic comes from.