That's not what the designers have said that I've been speaking to. They want to continue with the evolution of the car, "911 style".
What else did the mags in the know say about the now "current" 2nd generation?
Plastic roof, no multilink rear suspension, released in 2007, they wont increase the rear overhang to increase boot space, that the Cooper would have a turbo, and there could be a "2nd Cooper" without a turbo (?!?), and much much more....
Oh, and it would look like this:
Still, if they don't make all these guesses week after week, they might never actually get a few of them right to claim they "exclusively revealed" the details.