(Image courtesy of 9to5Mac)

As you’ve know doubt heard by now, the iPhone 4 is off to a rocky start, with pre-orders sold out most everywhere, including Apple’s website and AT&T. But the partners in crime are laughing all the way to the bank, it would seem, as a new report claims the pent-up demand for the iPhone 4 is as much as 10 times larger than the previous model.

Here’s one that won’t come as much of a surprise to anyone who tried to pre-prder an iPhone 4 yesterday: 9to5Mac is reporting that one of the reasons Apple and its partners may have sold through their pre-order stock so quickly is that demand for the iPhone 4 could be 10 times more than for the previous iPhone 3GS model. And you thought selling out of pre-orders despite AT&T’s eligibility meltdown on Tuesday was impressive!

The problems weren’t exclusive to the U.S. carriers, either: Deutsche Telekom also had “severe issues” with getting their pre-order queues resolved. The German carrier is the one who claims that demand for the new handset exceeds the previous model by 10 times.

As 9to5Mac points out, Apple sold one million iPhone 3GS units over the whole launch weekend last year. Of course, nobody is saying that Apple just sold 10 million handsets in one day alone -- that would be insane! -- but it’s realistic to predict that they may have at least matched their iPhone 3GS “one million sold” in one day compared with a whole weekend in 2009.

We’ll all know soon enough, but word on the street is that Apple has been ramping up quantities of this sucker to the tune of three million a month since May, which means there could realistically be as many as four to five million floating around out there, somewhere.

Maybe Gizmodo leaking the iPhone 4 wasn’t as damaging as Apple thinks…?

UPDATE: AT&T is now calling Tuesday “the busiest online sales day in AT&T history,” with Silicon Alley Insider scribe Dan Frommer claiming that Apple will have sold two million iPhone 4 devices by the end of the weekend following June 24, when the device actually lands in customers’ hands. It would seem that the long lines and party atmosphere of buying the first two generations of the iPhone has now gone online!

Follow this article’s author, J.R. Bookwalter on Twitter