When the Apple Online Store began reporting 7-10 day delays in iPod shuffle shipments , the media began speculating that the small player was going to suffer the same fate as the classic model, meaning that this series would also be discontinued.
Sources, however, with knowledge of the situation and what is happening in the company, say that this is not happening (at least not yet). The shortage is related to the production of components, but there are no plans to discontinue and withdraw the player.
It's not yet clear whether there's a shortage of parts, or if some components need to be reconfigured or upgraded. According to Billboard, "instead of discontinuing it, Apple is aggressively looking for new parts suppliers, which is why Shuffle production has been halted."
It is worth noting that when Apple discontinued the classic model last year, the CEO, Tim Cook, said «We could no longer get the components.» While it appears that the situation is similar to this case, the shuffle, it should be noted that the classic used the classic hard drive, whereas the shuffle uses NAND flash memory.
There's very little chance that Apple will redesign the shuffle at this point. With the iPod project's demise, the shuffle's days are numbered. The same goes for the iPod touch, which is essentially an iPhone without the phone feature.
Even though Apple has not disclosed sales figures, it is estimated that the screen-less player has much lower sales than those of the larger model.
