By Kasper Jade

Published: 03:50 PM EST

In the two weeks following Apple's announcement that iPod mini worldwide availability had been pushed back to July, neither Apple resellers nor the company's retail stores have received a shipment of iPod minis, various sources tell AppleInsider.

"Up until the availability warning we were receiving small but staggered shipments of the minis each week," one reseller said. "Immediately after [Apple] posted the warning, shipments stopped cold."

Earlier in March, iPod mini customers began to discover a major design flaw with the iPod mini's headphone jacks. It appears that the jack's connection to the main system board is extremely poorly engineered and routine use of the player will wear the connectors and cause static after around 35-40 days. In some instances reported at the iPodLounge, users began experiencing problems after only two weeks of constant use.

"Since soft metals such as aluminum easily deform, repeated pressure on the case — from inserting and removing the headphones, attaching it to a belt clip or an arm band — creates tension in the connecting pins. Eventually, the pins get loose resulting in that scratchy "mini hates me" sound," Irakli Loladze, an iPod mini owner, explained on a personal website dedicated to the issue.

Without attempting to pour salt on an already exposed wound, sources have begun to speculate that Apple may be using the world wide availability warning as a cover. "There is reason to believe that Apple is buying some time while engineers rapidly work to correct the exposed design flaws," one source said. "Further shipments of minis prone to such issues will only amount to unallocated repair costs for units still under warranty from Apple."

In the meantime, Apple is reportedly offering some customers a free upgrade to a 15GB iPod. "Your business is very important. If you would like an iPod sooner, we are offering to replace your iPod mini with a 15GB iPod at no additional charge," reads an e-mail sent to Apple Store customers with pending iPod mini orders.

On a related note, a blurb in today's edition of MacInTouch claims that Apple has asked resellers to destroy iPod posters and collateral with the bright colors and white silhouettes, indicating the possibility of a new iPod campaign. These materials were previously used as promotion for the company's 3rd generation white iPods.

"They have asked resellers to actually deface or cut up some of the larger items, sending to Apple select pieces of these items, to ensure that they don't end up on eBay!"

This week sources continued to provide hints that a completely new 4th generation iPod could hit the streets in time for the 1 year anniversary of the iTunes online music store on April 28th.