Analyst expects Apple to burn through 24 million next-gen iPhones in 2010

It’s not even official, but that’s not stopping Digitimes Research analyst Ming-Chi Kuo from estimating that Foxconn — manufacturer of the next iPhone — will deliver some 24 million units to Apple in 2010. According to Kuo, an initial shipment of 4.5 million devices will be followed throughout the rest of the year with 19.5 million additional units. Kuo also echoed John Gruber’s claims that the iPhone will have a 960×640 IPS display with FFS technology for a higher quality image with better visibility under direct sunlight, and that the phone will have 512MB of memory, or double the memory of the iPhone 3GS. This assertion is at odds with the findings of a recent next-gen iPhone prototype teardown which revealed the iPhone to be using the same 1GHz A4 processor with 256MB of system DRAM as the iPad. A more capacious battery is said to be included thanks to a 33% thinner display. Anyone else going to be on pins and needles for the next 21 days until WWDC?