After coding sleuths dug through the latest iPhone firmware and revealed references to a 2.1 model (the 3G iPhone being considered the 1.2 model, rather oddly), rumours have been growing again about an imminent Apple hardware update.

Venture Beat picked up on a news report from the United Arab Emirates newspaper Business 24-7 in which the region’s iPhone director for service provider etisalat, Mark Davis, alluded to a new version coming in June that will be made available to the UAE at the same time as the rest of the world.

“The latest 3G model will become available on February 15 according to Dow Jones, and etisalat will be targeting private and business users,” the report states. “And the next version of the device, which is due out in June, will be launched in the UAE at the same time.”

Although it's very difficult to substantiate right now, the launch of another iPhone model in June would tie in rather neatly with previous timescales of Apple's hardware releases.

The iPhone Nano rumour has pretty much fizzled out now, but it seems there’s no avoiding the fact that a hardware update is going to remain big news until Apple finally confirms what’s going on.