It’s coming and it’s going to be hot. Word on the street is that Apple has placed an order of 10 million units from some Asian manufacturer and industry pundits are saying this order is for the 3G-equipped Apple iPhone. Gartner analyst Ken Dulaney turned to his “Asian sources” for this information.

Think about why Apple would want to suddenly surge up production like that. The iPhone has been out for some time, so there is no reason to think that they would suddenly experience a huge surge in demand. That is, unless this new unit had something very popular to offer. It’s still conjecture at this point, but Dulaney is saying that this new iPhone will be “packing the 3G network compatibility that the public has been clamoring for.”

We’re already reasonably certain that a 3G iPhone is launching later this year and it wouldn’t make sense for Apple to suddenly produce a whole bunch of current-gen handsets. Dulaney goes on to speculate that the new handset will use OLED displays, helping to balance out the greater power draw of a 3G phone.