image thumb209 iPhone OS 3.0 coming out in March, can we expect the new iPhone sometime soon?

Apple is readying itself for the upcoming event on March 17 and reports are, the iPhone is having OS 3.0 for its hardware. Good news as we can expect the software making way to the market real soon. The question is whether Apple addresses the background tasks and open up for third party applications? Apart from that could this signal the coming of a new hardware as well? there have been speculations, far enough to talk about Apple’s own tablet.