Digg founder Kevin Rose kicked off this week's Apple rumors by claiming a 3-G iPhone was only a few months away and would feature not one, but two cameras for the purposes of video chat.

Now Gartner analyst Ken Dulaney has joined in the rumor-mongering, saying that Apple has in fact already placed an order for 10 million of these second-generation iPhones. That's in addition to the 10 million v.1 iPhones Apple has ordered, he says.

While Dulaney doesn't give a specific timeframe for its release, he does claim Apple moved up its iPhone v.2 release mainly to help spur on iPhone uptake in places like Europe, where slow sales have been attributed to the phone's distinct lack of 3-Gness.

As it stands, Delaney's claim is also in keeping with another rumor. Last November, tech blog Sevenclick

spoke to a manager at Spain's Telefonica, who said, among things, that while Telefonica and Apple had yet to reach an official agreement, the carrier expected to release a 3-G iPhone by May.

Here in U.S., AT&T has all but confirmed a speedier version of the iPhone will drop sometime this year and, for now, the main point of contention among analysts is simply when this will happen. Two camps have emerged: One that thinks the second iteration of the phone will debut sometime around the holiday season. Another believes May or June is the most likely date.

What say you, dear readers?

[via iPod Observer]

Photo: Flickr/Jason Schlachet

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