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The Chinese-language Commercial Times reported yesterday that Asustek had secured the orders for both the items.

However, sources at both at Foxconn and Asustek declined to comment on the orders, citing client confidentiality.

Foxconn is expected to ship at least 100,000 Mac mini computers per month to Apple, the sources noted. The unit will be available 22 January, sources at Apple said at the annual MacWorld conference held in San Francisco this week.

Shipments of the iPod shuffle from Asustek, which currently also produces iBook notebooks for Apple, are expected to reach 400,000 to 500,000 units a month, due to the aggressive pricing for the new products and brand recognition for Apple's iPod music players, the sources said. Sales of the iPod reached 4.5 million units in the fourth quarter of 2004, according to data released by Apple.

In addition, Asustek will also start shipping iBook G5 notebooks to Apple in the second quarter of this year. Shipments of the current iBook notebooks totaled about 110,000-120,000 units a month in the fourth quarter last year, the sources noted.