This just in: the iPhone is popular.

iPhone

Apple's music-playing, do-it-all mobile phone has already exceeded the company's sales expectations by 4 million units, according to a report this week from RBC Capital Markets. Apple had predicted that it would sell 10 million iPhones by the end of 2008 and is currently on target to sell 14 million by then, RBC said in its report.

Since it went on sale June 29, Apple has sold as many as 950,000 iPhones, including up to 500,000 in its first two days, RBC analyst Mike Abramsky said in a report. Apple sold out of the iPhone at most of its stores in less than a week after the product's debut. Apple's wireless-service partner AT&T Inc. ran out of the phones at its stores within the first 24 hours.

Apple had iPhones in stock last week at 70 percent of its 165 stores, according to a tally on the company's Web site.

Apple's iPhone costs $499 for a 4GB model and $599 for an 8GB version. New models of the iPhone, including one with 16GB, may be released this year, Abramsky said.

Steve Jobs unveiling the iPhone in January.

One of those models could be based on the cheaper, popular iPod Nano, the smaller, sleeker iPod, according to a research report from JP Morgan Chase. JP Morgan Chase analyst Kevin Chang issued a report saying that the new model could sell for less than $300.

Much of the Nano-based iPhone talk has centered on Apple's July 5 patent application that refers to a multifunctional handheld device with a circular touch-pad control, similar to the Nano's scroll wheel. Apple has not commented on the application or the speculation it incited.

"We believe that iPod Nano will be converted into a phone because it's probably the only way for Apple to launch a lower-end phone without severely cannibalizing iPod Nano," Chang said, noting that the new phone could have "rather limited functionality."