In just three days, Apple sold 1.7 million handsets of its iPhone 4. This apparently is better than Apple’s own expectations. In an interview Steve Jobs, Apple’s Chief Executive Officer said: “This is the most successful product launch in Apple’s history. Even so, we apologise to those customers who were turned away because we did not have enough supply.”

The latest version of the iPhone went on sale last week both in the UK and in the USA. The number of pre-orders surpassed 600,000 on the first day alone.

This apparently is the biggest pre-order sale of any company and is three times higher than when the 3GS version was launched last year.

Sales of the 3GS were one million in three days.

Walter Piecyk, an analyst at BTIG Research said: “It’s amazing how the fourth iteration of a product could generate the longest lines and the strongest sales yet.”

In other non iPhone news, HTC has confirmed that three of its phones – Desire, Legend and Wildfire – will all be upgraded to version 2.2 of the Android operating system before September.

A spokesperson from HTC said: “We are working hard with our partners to update the HTC Sense experience on Froyo and distribute it to our customers as fast as possible.

“We expect to release updates for several of our 2010 models including Desire, Legend and Wildfire beginning in Q3 “