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Analyst Ken Dulaney's comments were widely reported after he told The iPod Observer that based on "what he's heard in Asian circles" he believed Apple had placed the order.

But Dulaney's boss, Bob Hafner, says that his comments were misinterpreted.

"We have not got confirmation that

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an order had been placed,"he said, though he adds that were Apple to place an order for a second-generation iPhone, it is likely to be for as many as 10 million and will "absolutely" have 3G.

Gartner believes 3G is essential if Apple is to compete with new smartphones from rival manufacturers.

Bank of America analyst Scott Craig expects Apple to announced a 3G iPhone in the second quarter of this year - and order up to eight million handsets.

"Our latest channel checks point to a significant production build of a 3G iPhone beginning in the month of June after an initial small build in May," he said.

In common with other observers, Craig sees the launch of a new iPhone to coincide with the release of version 2.0 of Apple's mobile OS X for the iPhone and iPod touch, possibly during the company's annual developers conference. This year's WWDC runs from 9 to 13 June.