AFP: Citing heavy US demand, Apple delays iPad worldwide release

[elbert]

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp...wBhwEQ6AIWAtPw

Citing heavy US demand, Apple delays iPad worldwide release
By Chris Lefkow (AFP) – 4 hours ago

WASHINGTON — Apple fans around the world are going to have to wait a little longer for the iPad -- heavy US demand has delayed the international release of the device for a month, until the end of May.

"Faced with this surprisingly strong US demand, we have made the difficult decision to postpone the international launch of iPad by one month," Apple said in a statement on Wednesday.

The Cupertino, California-based company had planned to begin selling the touchscreen tablet computer in late April in Australia, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain and Switzerland.

The latest device from the maker of the Macintosh computer, the iPod and the iPhone went on sale in the United States on April 3.

"Although we have delivered more than 500,000 iPads during its first week, demand is far higher than we predicted and will likely continue to exceed our supply over the next several weeks," Apple said.

"We will announce international pricing and begin taking online pre-orders on Monday, May 10," it said.

"We know that many international customers waiting to buy an iPad will be disappointed by this news, but we hope they will be pleased to learn the reason -- the iPad is a runaway success in the US thus far," Apple said.

Apple chief executive Steve Jobs said last week that Apple was "making (iPads) as fast as we can." "Evidently we can't make enough of them yet so we are going to have to try harder," Jobs said.

Credit Suisse analysts have estimated iPad sales of 4.8 million units this year and 8.7 million units next year while Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty forecast iPad sales of six million units this year.

Analyst Douglas McIntyre of 247WallSt.com said Apple has either "done too good a job marketing its iPad in the US" or "underestimated the number of units it would need to start to sell the product overseas."

"Apple, which normally runs as perfectly as a company can, has blundered to the extent that customers outside the US will be disappointed," he said, citing "poor production planning" the most likely reason for the delay.

"Apple has tripped, at least a bit," McIntyre said. "But, the interest in the iPad seems great enough that it probably won't matter."

The delay announcement was met with skepticism by independent technology analyst Carmi Levy.

"It's hard to believe that Apple couldn't predict heavy demand for the iPad in the US, and it's hard to believe that the company wasn't able to prepare its supply chain to meet this heavy demand," Levy told AFP.

"This is little more than a marketing strategy that is designed to stoke consumer demand in international markets even higher than it already is," he said.

Levy said Apple could afford such a move because it does not face any competition yet in the tablet computer space.

"Apple can easily afford to stretch availability dates, because most buyers will happily wait as long as it takes to get their iPad fix," he said.

"It's a somewhat cynical means of dealing with consumers in international markets, but Apple is very much in the kind of position where it can get away with this kind of thing," Levy said.

The iPad allows users to watch video, listen to music, play games, surf the Web or read electronic books. It runs most of the more than 185,000 applications made for the iPod Touch and the iPhone.

The model that went on sale in the United States this month features Wi-Fi wireless connectivity. A model offering both Wi-Fi and 3G cellular connectivity will be released in late April.

The cheapest iPad model, with Wi-Fi connectivity and 16 gigabytes of memory, is 499 dollars while the most expensive -- which includes 3G connectivity and 64GB of memory -- costs 829 dollars.

Copyright © 2010 AFP. All rights reserved

[Salaryman Ryan]

I'm somewhat partial to the skeptics. This "Oh we are being swamped with demand so, yeah wait a bit okay." could simply be Apple doing some really effective marketing to intensify demand overseas. They know you want it and they know that you will wait to get it.

[zoo101]

judging by the fact that my order was confirmed April 10 (Pacific Time) and it still hasn't shipped to date, i would disagree with the skeptics: i dont think its a marketing ploy.

[reddddd]

Was in Jersey and NY, we jumped from stores to stores - its true, everyone is getting an Ipad. We too were forced to get the 64gbs. Ipad really made it bigtime..

[elbert]

If it is indeed a ploy, then it is a very well planned one.

To me, when Apple announced two weeks ago that it wouldn't honor launch-date delivery for pre-orders made after the 27th of March (pushing the delivery date to April 12), it was a sign that their supply couldn't meet demand, based on pre-orders alone.

It makes sense to delay the 3G. Apple needs to take care of its own backyard first and foremost.

Question is this: is the Philippines part of the International rollout in the end of May? Or do we wait longer?

Here's Apple PR on the issue:

April 14, 2010

Apple Media Advisory

Apple today released the following statement:

Although we have delivered more than 500,000 iPads during its first week, demand is far higher than we predicted and will likely continue to exceed our supply over the next several weeks as more people see and touch an iPad™. We have also taken a large number of pre-orders for iPad 3G models for delivery by the end of April.

Faced with this surprisingly strong US demand, we have made the difficult decision to postpone the international launch of iPad by one month, until the end of May. We will announce international pricing and begin taking online pre-orders on Monday, May 10. We know that many international customers waiting to buy an iPad will be disappointed by this news, but we hope they will be pleased to learn the reason—the iPad is a runaway success in the US thus far.

[aragorn_109]

It seems Apple has learned its lessons from the past:

1. Apple overestimated the demand for the iPhone Classic in the United States... thus they slashed $200 of it just a few months after.
2. Apple underestimated the demand for the international iPhone 3G/3GS release because of the US experience, thus contributing to shortage of 3GS units internationally for some time.
3. Apple underestimated the demand for the iPad in the United States, probably thinking of the original iPhone classic experience.

But after realizing that the demand for the iPad in the States went over the supply, I guess it was a nice decision to delay the international release, hoping to get it right this time around.

[loko__loko]

US heavy demand cause those who bought are shipping worldwide

[waxx]

dunno if it has something to do with the shortage, but my pending order for ipad 32g just got cancelled.. got this in the mail today:


Thank you for your recent Apple order.

To ensure that all customers are given equal opportunity to acquire this
product we have limited the amount available per customer. Therefore,
this order has been cancelled.

If you have questions, you may reach us at 1-800-676-2775 between
8:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. PT Monday through Friday, 6:00 a.m. and
4:00 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

[chu]

dunno if it has something to do with the shortage, but my pending order for ipad 32g just got cancelled.. got this in the mail today:


Thank you for your recent Apple order.

To ensure that all customers are given equal opportunity to acquire this
product we have limited the amount available per customer. Therefore,
this order has been cancelled.

If you have questions, you may reach us at 1-800-676-2775 between
8:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. PT Monday through Friday, 6:00 a.m. and
4:00 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

I thought they have a limit of 2 per person, did you purchase an iPad prior to this?

[waxx]

I thought they have a limit of 2 per person, did you purchase an iPad prior to this?

nope... i find it weird nga e.