Rumors of a PS3 Slim have been circulating for some time now but over the past few weeks more information has emerged which may be pointing towards the introduction of a new model in the Playstation 3 line-up.

Just this week two interesting snippets emerged, one official and one insider information. The official announcement came from Sony signaling that they would be discontinuing the 80GB version of the PS3 currently on sale in Japan. Whilst not groundbreaking, no manufacturer wants to inundate the market with purchase options therefore removing one certainly makes sense if your considering introducing a new SKU.

Secondly, industry insiders, Taiwan’s DigiTimes reported this week that that Sony recently “placed significant orders for key Sony PS3 components” from local manufacturers, way way above the quantities they usually source. Apparently the quantity in question is enough to produce one million PS3 consoles in the third quarter of 2009, twice as many as the previous quarter.

So, what does all this mean? Well likely one of two things. Either Sony are expecting a significant increase in demand for the currently not-that-in-demand PS3 [see here], or… there building an all new one.