Is the supply of iPhones way ahead of the demand these days? That seems to be the case according to a posting on CNET's News.com.

Apple claims to have sold more than four million iPhones while AT&T, the exclusive US provider of the phone, has yet to hit the two-million mark. Since the iPhone was only available in the States until November, when it went on sale in a few European countries, it's highly unlikely that Europe accounts for those other two million.

The story cites a research note from Sanford C. Bernstein financial analyst Toni Sacconaghi, who believes that there might be "an awful lot" of iPhones filling the inventory shelves of Apple's channel partners.

Still, it might be possible for Apple to reach its stated goal of selling 10 million iPhones this year, the article says, if it starts selling the device in additional European and Asian countries, delivers a new 3G version, slashes the price and sees a slew of third-party applications once the softwaer development kit is released next month.