Rumor: 40-45 million iPhones in 2010

    A Taiwanese supplier reports that Apple has doubled its order for iPhone image sensors

    by Philip Elmer-DeWitt

    OmniVision Technologies (OVTI), which makes the 3.2 megapixel image sensors in Apple's (AAPL) iPhone 3GS, is expecting orders for its iPhone chips to grow to 40-45 million in calendar 2010, up from 20-21 million in 2009.

    This according to a report Wednesday in DigiTimes, a Taipei-based daily newspaper that covers — with uneven results — every hiccup in the Taiwanese and greater Chinese electronics industry.

    The report describes a next-generation iPhone with a 5 megapixel camera scheduled to appear in Apple Stores in the second half of the year.

    The timing sounds right. Apple has introduced a new iPhone every summer for the past three years. AppleInsider points out that San Francisco's Moscone West, where Apple usually holds WWDC, its annual developers conference, has been booked for an unidentified "corporate event" from June 28 to July 2, 2010.

    Apple sold 16.4 million iPhones in the first three quarters of calendar 2009 and according to several reports is on track to sell another 9 or 10 million more before the end of the year.