While Apple hasn’t made any official announcement yet about… basically anything coming out this year, there’s one thing you can guarantee you will see come out this year. That would be a brand-new iPhone for customers to play with. The iPhone 3G is still one of the most popular phones on the market right now, but Apple probably will update the phone come this summer.

Why? For one very simple reason. The original two-year AT&T contracts will begin to expire starting this summer. After that people are free to look around and try new phones and new services. Even if people continue to use their iPhone’s, they won’t be locked into a contract anymore. And there’s nothing service providers love more than two-year contracts. So how do you get people to renew their contracts? You give them a new phone.

Right now everyone else is trying to play catch up, trying to make that phone that kills the iPhone. Some have come close, but not one has done it yet. This summer will be prime hunting season for manufacturers. You will see some top model phones come out. If Apple and AT&T still want to dominate the market, they need to release a brand-new iPhone. They’re already expected to release a new 3.0 OS, so why not have a new phone to. Customers after all won’t sign a new two-year contract simply because there’s a new OS on it.

Maybe it will be a little smaller maybe they’ll fix the camera, maybe they will change the design ever so slightly. Who knows with Apple. But there will be a new phone.