Next Generation iPhone, iPad And Apple TV References Found In iOS 5.1

Apple seeded iOS 5.1 Beta to developers of iOS developer program yesterday.

While it's not clear what new features and improvements Apple has included in the upcoming iOS software update, 9 to 5 Mac has discovered references to quite a few next generation iOS devices.

9 to 5 Mac reports that they've discovered references to the next generation iPhone, iPad and Apple TV.

As you can see in the snippet below, there are references to "iPhone5,1". Apple uses these models numbers to distinguish between different hardware models.

For example: The original iPhone carries the model number of "iPhone 1,1", while the iPhone 3G is labeled "iPhone 1,2", iPhone 3GS is labeled "iPhone 2,1", the model number of iPhone 4 is "iPhone 3,1" and iPhone 4S is "iPhone4,1".

These numbers do not change for simple storage increases and instead represent functionally different devices.

Based on this, it looks like Apple might start field testing the next generation iPhone.

9 to 5 Mac has also discovered references to the unreleased version of iPad 2 with model number iPad2,4 and iPad 3,3. It is being widely speculated that iPad2,4 could be the model number for Sprint iPad 2, while model number iPad 3,3 suggests that non-surprisingly Apple is also testing the next generation iPad.

What's on your wish list for the next generation iPhone, iPad and Apple TV? Let us know in the comments below.