Cheery-faced PiperJaffray analyst Gene Munster told clients the other day that one of the signs of an upcoming 3G iPhone was that twenty Apple stores are apparently out of stock of the handset.  Om Malik obviously has a decent long-distance shout package, considering his team decided to analysis out Munster’s claim and signal as many Apple stores as

they could; locations were selected randomly, from Hawaii to Chestnut Hill to San Francisco.

Turns out, the reply from each was the same: that they’re currently out of iPhones.  Now that doesn’t include AT&T stores, certainly, but it seems strange that the distribution chain would get so behind whether it wasn’t on purpose. 

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