Reports claim O2 selling 18-20k iPhones a week in UK

There's no doubt that Apple's iPhone is ahead of expectations when it comes to sales - the company smashed through its targeted 10 million figure by the end of 2008 a couple of months early.

However, one analyst is predicting that Apple will cut its iPhone production by as much as 40 per cent during the fourth quarter of this year.

The forecast came from Craig Berger, an analyst at FBR Capital Markets. If true - and this is just one analyst's opinion based on uncited sources - it may represent Apple cutting back in the face of a possible slowdown on consumer spending.

However, it could be that Apple has plenty of stock ready to ship already, or Berger's prediction could be off-mark - Reg Hardware points out that he's made similar predictions about MacBook laptops before, which then proceeded to sell MORE, not less.

Still, with numerous mobile publishers basing an increasing chunk of their future growth forecasts on iPhone's rollout, such speculation may cause concern within the games market.