It is true that as soon as Digitimes.com launches a rumor, all the Apple fans go crazy, but generally the source proved to be as reliable as possible, and the rumors, even the incredible ones, turned into facts.

Now that the same source announces the possible launch, in less than one month, of the Apple 2 GB Shuffle iPod, all we can do is search for other clues to support this news and wait anxiously for this rumor to become a fact.

A first clue to support this hypothesis is represented by the greatly increased volume of orders for NAND Flash memory modules that Apple placed lately to the Korean manufacturer Samsung.

There is a rather large possibility, if the 2 GB Shuffle iPod hypothesis is confirmed, that Apple will also produce, by the end of the year, a player model based on Flash memory technology, with a capacity of 4 GB. In this context, the iPod Mini would be seriously threatened by a newer, cheaper and more enduring model, which offers a storage capacity only slightly smaller than the one of the hard disk version. Nevertheless, the absence of the LCD screen (provided that the current design will be maintained) could represent an advantage for the player's old school models.

However, neither Apple nor Samsung have issued any comments regarding the increase in the volume of Flash memory orders, and an official response is yet to be expected.