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An email to a customer purporting to be from O2 sales director Steve Shurrock explains that Apple has "only been able to supply a small proportion of the number of phones we asked for, because they are launching simultaneously in 22 countries," claims the Register.

If genuine, the email is a worrying signal for those that have signed up to purchase a handset on its release date.

Over 200,000 people have registered an interest in signing up for a 3G iPhone contract, but O2 has only "a very small proportion of that number of devices

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available," claims Shurrock.

Huge demand to register for a handset caused the O2 website to crash just hours after opening on Monday. Soon after that a message was posted explaining that all available stock had sold out.

Some reports indicate that Apple is restricting the availability of handsets due to the high number of first generation iPhones which were unlocked. Less than 15% of handsets sold after April in the UK were registered on O2's network, claims Electricpig.

"According to our source, the UK will receive a very limited stock of the iPhone 3G as a result," the site claimed.

Those hoping to buy a pay-as-you-go handset will likely be disappointed as well. Despite accidentally revealing that the handset will cost £299 and £350 without a contract for the 8GB and 16GB models respectively, O2 has said that units will be available only "later this year".

O2 was unavailable for comment at the time of writing.