iPhone 3GS Overheating Due to Battery Issues?

When some Palm Pre owners complained of screen distortion, I warned iPhone users to expect some sort of problem with their new iPhone 3GS phones. After all, nothing is perfect. Right now the issue that's causing some consternation for iPhone 3GS owners is overheating, to the point that white iPhone 3GS phone have turned brown.

There's actually not that much activity at the Apple Support Forums, though the issue has been reported.

At the same time, Rapid Repair which performs teardowns of hardware gadgetry (such as this Palm Pre teardown), said overheating could point to a problem with faulty battery cells. Rapid Repair points to the fact that the brown marks on the back of the iPhone 3GS phones that have the problem basically outline the battery.

Interestingly, there are quite a few responses to a post about problems with the battery, but not in terms of overheating, but in terms of battery life.

So it seems that when users say the iPhone 3GS is hot, they mean in more than just trendiness. We'll see if this continues to be an issue for end users.