Apple has placed an order for 15 million next-gen iPhones with Taiwan-based manufacturer Pegatron, DigiTimes reported today. The order is based on a September ship date for the new iPhone, which DigiTimes' sources say is not a major revision from the iPhone 4.

These numbers cast our memories back to when Apple was pushing the first iPhone toward a million sales within months of its launch. These days, Apple is shipping multiple millions per quarter: the first quarter of 2011 saw 16.24 million iPhone sales, topped by the second quarter's 18.65 million.

The increased sales are not entirely thanks to the new CDMA version of the iPhone, either. Pegatron overhauled its entire factory setup to satisfy a 10-million-iPhone CDMA iPhone 4 order, but less than four million of those have shipped. Since September's model is entirely new, we doubt this will be a repeat problem for the company.

The iPhone 5's body reportedly resembles the iPhone 4, but may receive several internal revisions, including a dual-core A5 processor, 8-megapixel camera, and an edge-to-edge 3.7- or 3.8-inch screen with a resolution a third higher than the iPad 2's 1024x768 screen. Verizon also slipped up recently and said the new iPhone may be dual-mode CDMA and GSM, though whether it will be able to take advantage of 4G LTE has not yet been publicly discussed.