What if, instead of iPhone 5 or iPhone 4S, Apple decided to call the new device iPhone 4GS? Confession: I used to love those old Marvel What If? comics, like what if Captain America were discovered today, or what if Conan appeared in the 20th century, or what if Jean Grey didn’t die? (You know, before they retconned that into redundancy.)

So let’s pretend for a moment that there’s no big new redesign this year and that means Apple doesn’t want to go with iPhone 5 as the name, and iPhone 4S just doesn’t do it for carriers who, now touting HPSA+ as 4G are eager to slap that faux-logo on every box they can. AT&T and others would almost certainly want to market an HSPA+ iPhone as 4G, the way they do their other HSPA+ phones, so having 4G or 4GS in the name would be perfect for them.

Of course, Verizon (and potentially Sprint) don’t have HSPA+ networks, and the new iPhone likely won’t support LTE 4G until next year. That would leave Verizon at a significant marketing disadvantage. Would Apple be willing to do that to Verizon? Either before or after Verizon took Samsung’s side in the ongoing Apple vs. Samsung patent dispute?

That’s the problem with “what if” speculation — it can get out of hand quickly. iPhone 5. iPhone 4S. iPhone 4GS. iPhone 4G. Anything is possible when no product has even been announced yet — and no announcement has even been officially announced yet.

Personally, iPhone 3GS always sounded un-Apple-like to me — like a way to recover and get back on the generational tract. I can’t see them going with iPhone 4GS unless they’re backed into a similar branding corner, but would it make sense, given the HSPA+ carriers, to have 4G in the name?

It’s WWDC 2009. Steve or Phil or Scott or Joz or whomever is handling the heavy lifting for the iPhone 3.0 section and release-date announcement smiles and says — “There’s one more thing…

“Last year we showed you Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync support. Nobody expected it, but we were blown away by the reception. This year, we’re announcing BlackBerry Connect support for the iPhone. With this, not only can you chat with your team over BlackBerry Messenger, but you can push data right from your Corporate BES. And to tell us more about it, ladies and gentlemen, here’s CrackBerry Kevin the Co-CEO of Research in Motion–”

Sounds crazy, doesn’t it? It does to me. I know it does to Kevin. No way in Hull (it’s in Ontario — look it up!) this happens, right? It’s not like Apple would ever do business with a competitor such as RIM… or Microsoft… or Google…

Would Apple even want BlackBerry Connect — a software layer that emulates varying amounts of BlackBerry functionality on other devices like Symbian, Palm, or Windows Mobile — on the iPhone? They’ve certainly got some degree of business integration now with the aforementioned Microsoft ActiveSync. And from RIM’s side, while they have licensed BlackBerry Connect in the past, it’s not like they’ve been putting any emphasis on it in the present, have they?

Aside from letting iPhone users instachat more seamlessly with BlackBerry users — dogs and cats living together, as Dieter would say — is there anything really in it for consumers either? It wouldn’t give the iPhone a keyboard or the BlackBerry the ability to run more than a handful of tiny, on-memory apps. And, instead of breaking down more proprietary communication protocols, it would just be extending PIN the way it’s already extended ActiveSync.

Still, crazier things have happened. What if this did? Would you want it?

There’s been some chatter here, and in the blogsphere in general, that the iPhone 3G isn’t a compelling enough upgrade for current iPhone users. 3G speed is nice, but not everyone has it in their area. GPS rocks, but Google cell and Skyhook WiFi triangulation is good enough for a lot of location services. And the flush headset jack? Already bought an adapter. So aside from some internals, like rejiggered sensor arrays, better speaker quality, and more radio-friendly plastic back, some just don’t feel like the iPhone 3G brought enough new stuff!

But what if it had? What if it had brought the mother of all firmware updates?

Steve Jobs takes back the stage at WWDC 2008, thanks Scott Forstall and everyone, says how wonderful the SDK looks, goes over all the new features coming to the platform with 2.0, and then reaches into his pocket and says: “But there’s one more thing…” And pulls out something just a little sleeker and blacker backed. “All those 2.0 features, all the enterprise and SDK goodness…” He holds it up and the light flashes against its more tapered sliver bezel. “Are coming EXCLUSIVELY to the new iPhone 3G!”

Boom.

Crazy? Sure. It probably would have broken the internet in half and set off a mountain of protests that would have made the $200 price drop nonsense seem like a molehill. Arguments and counter-arguments would have raged, Apple fanboys would have been split, Apple-haters would have pounced…

But it would have made the iPhone 3G a much more compelling upgrade, wouldn’t it?

Sure, maybe the iPhone 3G we got was somewhere between tweak and evolution on the typical Apple product roadmap, but –

“iPhone 2.0, Available Exclusively on 3G…”

– Would anyone seriously have preferred that?