Apple has ordered the production of four million next-generation iPhones, claims the Chinese-language newspaper the Commercial Times. Delivery is expected by the end of the current quarter, ending in June, which could presage shipment to stores in late June or early July. A formal unveiling of new phones is anticipated at this year's WWDC event in San Francisco, scheduled to start June 8th.

The CT report also suggests that as many as three models of iPhone may be a part of the order. The flagship is said to be a 3G device with all of Apple's latest component evolutions; joining it however is thought to be an EDGE-only model, intended as a discount option. The third phone is meant explicitly for China, which may suggest an absent Wi-Fi module and/or support for the country's TD-SCDMA broadband standard instead of the global WCDMA.

The article differs with sources cited by the Kaufman Bros. research group, which suggest that 3.7 million iPhones could ship in the June quarter as part of an overall initial build of 5 to 6 million. Kaufman also proposes that only two new iPhone models are coming, though a Chinese variant could be considered too distant or too removed to be mentioned in current betas of the iPhone 3.0 firmware.