Buzz about a "slim" version of the PlayStation 3 just won't go away, and the latest word has it that Sony has already placed manufacturing orders for the purported new console, with delivery expected this month.

Engadget links to a translated story from the Chinese-language Economic Daily News, which claims that Sony has signed agreements with hardware manufacturers Foxconn and Pegatron (makers of the original PS3 console, as Joystiq points out) to build a slimmed-down version of the PS3 for delivery in July.

The story goes on to say that the so-called "slim" PS3 will be the "last PS3 model of this generation," Engadget reports, and that a next-generation PlayStation console is due in 2010—a claim that Engadget's bloggers "don't buy at all," although the "slim PS3" manufacturing rumors have been "backed up by a couple of credible reports."

Meanwhile, DigiTimes (via SlashGear) notes that Foxconn—one of the two supposed manufacturers of the (rumored) slim PS3—declined to comment on the Economic Daily News story for reasons of "customer confidentiality." Interesting.

Purported spy shots of a "slim PS3" first surfaced back in May, and a reliable mole for Ars Technica claims that the new console will arrive in September.

I have to admit—I was pretty skeptical of the slim PS3 photos when they first leaked onto the Web, but the steady drumbeat of rumors is slowly changing my mind. Let's just hope that the new PS3—if it exists—arrives hand-in-hand with a long-overdue price drop, as well.

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Sony placing PS3 slim manufacturing orders for delivery in July? [Engadget]