Apple says that the shipment delays of its top-of-the-line 27-inch iMacs aren't because it has halted production while it works to correct the big boy's display problems. The real reason for the delays? "The 27-inch iMac has been a huge hit with customers and we are working to increase supply to meet up with strong demand," the company says.

So an Apple spokesman told The Wall Street Journal. The WSJ also reports that the spokesman told them that production of the troublesome iMac hasn't been stopped, but that the company is working to solve the problems with the iMac's flickering display and yellowish tinge.

According to MacBidouille/HardMac, unnamed sources told them that production of the ailing all-in-one had stopped, as we reported on Monday. Later that day, Apple released it second firmware fix for the iMacs, this one specifically targeted "to address issues that may cause intermittent display flickering."

Responses to the firmware fix have been generally positive. Over on Apple's discussion boards, in a massive thread with over 4,250 posts, reports of the fix's efficaciousness comfortably outnumber those reporting problems. Happy iMaccers report: "I have not yet had a return of flickering after applying second firmware update," "Positive result after fix," and "So far haven't seen the light flickering that I usually. Could this really be 'it'?"

But a few users aren't out of the woods yet. "Applied the new patch last night," writes one, "and after a few hours, flickering started happening again." Another notes: "Still getting little dropouts and surges in brightness every few minutes." And another: "Now it's even worse. Unusable."

Apple's statement about its latest firmware fix, by the way, doesn't mention a fix for the iMac's yellow-tinged display, lamented in a separate discussion thread that as of Wednesday had 655 posts. ®