The massive initial success of Apple’s iPhone device has causes industry observers to review their projection of the Apple iPhone sales going forward. Memory market tracker DRAMeXchange believes that Apple may sell approximately four million iPhones this year, but order to be able to fulfill the demand towards both iPhones and iPods, the company needs to start stockpiling flash memory already now.

DRAMeXchange conservatively projects roughly 4 million iPhones will be shipped in the second half of 2007. In 2008, the product will account for 1% of the worldwide cell phone market, or in other words, about 12 million iPhones will be shipped, the market tracking firm estimates. Apple itself earlier this year said it would sell 8 million iPhone products in 2008.

If the shipment ratio between the 4GB and 8GB are the same in 2007, roughly 192 million (in 1Gb equivalents) flash chips will be consumed by Apple’s new cell phone. This figure will represent 2.4% of the overall flash supply in the second half of the year, which is not particularly high, notes DRAMeXchange in its brief analysis. If Apple wishes to generate strong iPhone sales during this year’s Christmas season, the stocking up of the flash inventory would need to begin in Q3 2007, where it will represent 5.7% of the quarterly market output.

If Apple also unveils upgraded iPods in Q3, which may include new iPod video products that employ flash for storage, the required amount in Q3 2007 from both the iPhone and iPod will be more than 25%, according to DRAMeXchange. Therefore, with Apple’s products given a high priority in the flash supply, the future sales of the iPhone will most certainly affect the NAND Flash market in the second half of 2007.