The Chinese-language Economic Daily News reports that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) and United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC) will likely land chip orders for Apple's low-cost entry-level iPhone nano, according to DigiTimes.

Rumors have run rampant about the device in the last few weeks. Recently Brian Marshal of American Technology Research is quoted in the International Business Times as saying, "We do expect an iPhone nano launch early this year and our analysis suggests this could add an incremental ~$3.4bil in pro forma revenue [to 2009]."

Interestingly he believes that the iPhone nano will see an international launch before a launch in the Unites States. "Obviously, the best-case scenario here would be a China launch (~600mil+ wireless subscribers total in the country), but we have no definitive knowledge of this and are working on identifying the local of launch and other pertinent details."

According to the Economic Daily News, the chip orders may come in March and the launch of Apple's iPhone nano is expected to take place in June of this year at the earliest.

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