“Apple today quietly pushed the ship times for iPad 2 online orders back once again, now estimating new purchases at 3 weeks to a month,” Josh Lowensohn reports for CNET.
“The new shipping times, along with sellouts, and limited model availability at retail stores (including its own), are a clear sign that Apple is having a tough time meeting demand,” Lowensohn reports. “A similar situation took place during the first launch, leading to Apple pushing back its international launch, which for the iPad 2 is less than two weeks away.”
Lowensohn reports, “Online sales of the iPad 2 kicked off at 1 a.m. PT yesterday, and quickly went from 3 to 5 days to 2 to 3 weeks, the latter of which had held until just a few hours ago.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Note: So far, Apple’s current position on iPad 2’s international launch remains unchanged: On March 25th, iPad 2 will be available in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]
International launch in 26 (TWENTYSIX) countries sounded very ambitious to me !
Flash memory, batteries and HQ capacitors are all done in Japan (there is even print “Apple Japan” on the battery).
So the tragedy there may really tamper with iPad 2 production and its worldwide unrolling.
Agreed. Looks like all new gadgets will have supply constraints due to the tragic events happening in Japan.
As usual the rest of the world gets sloppy seconds when it comes to apple product launches.
I GUARANTEE that apple will move the launch back at least a month!
If they don’t, expect very little availablity in retail
Stores across the globe.
Me, I’m gonna order online at 12.01 on the morning of the launch. That’s gonna be the only way of guaranteeing an ipad 2.
Ordered my black WiFi 16G at 03:00 am CST Friday and as of 10:15 am CST Sunday, it’s in transit at Lantau Island HK. No 2-4 weeks for me.
I did too, but got it engraved, and it hasn’t shipped yet. (Wifi 32G)! Still says 3 – 5 bus days.
I was one of the last 5 in line to get one on Friday. So glad I wasn’t 15 min later.
I see it like this: the March release was meant to give us a taste, get a million or so of these out there and spur demand. They won’t begin to churn out the millions necessary to keep up with that demand until April.
So when you think about it, the real iPad release date is still in April like last year and some people are just fortunate enough to have gotten one a month early.
they do this to increase demand.
I know this sort of thing is commonplace. Still, Apple needn’t pull such a stunt to create an artificial surge in demand.
I think that there is a huge inventory allotment of iPad 2’s set aside for the international launch. Last year was an anomaly wherein Apple didn’t even realise how huge the demand would be.
If anyone thinks that Apple intentionally kept manufacturing low to stimulate demand, you need to think again. Virtually every Apple product is a sell out at release. Apple does not need to stimulate demand. Apple is pushing its suppliers to ramp up production and had to strike a balance between building up an initial inventory and delaying its retail release.
I don’t know why so many people assign nefarious intentions to Apple. It’s FUD.
HUGE success, again …..
I wonder how many millions of ipad 2s they can make in a month
Come on Tim Cook…you should have seen this coming and/or have a huge stockpile ready to ship in the next week to relieve all this pent-up demand.
Why don’t you go shove your head up yourvass where it belongs instead of second guessing the company that is number 1 in inventory management. WTF else do you know about knee jerks?
And while you’re at it moron, tell us what superior natural disaster you can second guess for all the smart ass know it alls.
Simmer down would ya? You’re going to bust a vein. It’s only a comment section.
To be read in dead pan monotone.
Its obvious AAPL stages this crap with limited release to have long lines for press coverage : free advertising. I’d be careful calling them genius though, you do realize that by waiting so long to offer the iPhone on other carriers they lost sales and more importantly let Android get a big piece of the market. That was just plain dumb. A fact not fiction. As much as I love my AAPL stuff and stock I think like an adult not like a fanboy. AAPL, it’s just a big money making company. It isn’t your best buddy it’s a business. Grow up. Any company that consistently fails to change time on a phone, twice a year with time change, is not genius. The other AAPL sites all covered this. I’ll bet MDN does not mention it. They would ridicule an Android phone for such a screw up!
Grow up? Please GM.
You honestly believe Apple did a limited release on purpose for press coverage?
Wouldn’t it have been more impressive press coverage for them to sell 5 million units or some other huge impressive number?
Sure, Apple doesn’t do everything perfectly, but to assume that they would purposely hold back on production or release of product in order to stimulate some kind of weird press coverage is just silly.
They launched the iPad2 knowing fully that they did not have enough product. That my friend is silly, not me. I simply pointed out the obvious. Sorry you can’t think rationally like an adult. Fanboy.
GM you’re like a blind mouse who just felt the tail of an elephant an came to severely incorrect conclusion. Breathe deeply and calm down, don’t be a troll.
I got mine yesterday, walked into my local Apple Store, the greeter asked what I was in for, said an iPad, she started whispering, asked me to step to the side, introduced me to the manager who go me a sales person, all seemingly on the DL… long strange story short got in a few minutes… weird?
Some people just sit on their couch and wait for their hot pizza delivery, they don’t care about if the delivery man had a car accident it’s not their business, but really in this case I believe this man didn’t thought that the earthquake could affect his life until it happens in his home.
We got to an Apple store at 8am- first in line. At 5pm sharp they let us in, after serving us coffee and water all afternoon. We walked out at 5:20 with two iPads each (no we arent reselling them). But it was sort of a high price to pay for making sure we got what we wanted.
Don’t you think that just maybe they are taking into account the international launches in this 3-4 week lead time? If US folks are that desperate for one, they’ll wait, pushing back the International launch would be far worse than pushing the lead time for US orders.
Says a man form the UK.
International launch will happen as planned.
Sounds to me like Apple are trying to spread out the “pain” to all customers. After the initial launch, even US customers will have to wait a similar amount of time as in other territories. Get used to it, the USA now makes up less than 50% of Apple’s sales and will continue to decrease.
As it is, you’re lucky Apple didn’t decide to release the iPad2 more widely in AsiaPac as that would have spread supplies out more thinly after allowing for supplying to the region that has one of the highest growth rates for Apple sales.
Everyone should also remember that the most fragile time in a manufacturing and logistics supply chain is at start up so there’s only so much pressure they’ll want to put on the system in the first couple of months. Once they’re sure they have everything in order, they’ll be able to ramp up more securely. As it is I’m sure they beefed up production compared to iPad 1 but there are limits as to how much risk you want to take on.
All the above is obviously coloured by the Japanese disaster which will take weeks, months and possibly years to shake out. Let’s wish them all the best.
i think they should have waited before making ‘white’ available as an option. They are still ramping up. In any case, no doubt Apple learned in the 1990s what happens when you have inventory collecting dust…
it was a give in that the cameras alone would draw people to iPad 2. Faster chip that is also dual core is a bonus… RAM seems to have really sped up browsing.
Is it just me or are there no iPad 2 commercials?
So they should throw money out to advertise a product they can’t keep in stock. R2 I sure hope you don’t run a major corporation.
MegaHit!
I just hope supply on the 64Gb 3G loosens up soon.
Sure, International launch, just like they did in the Best Buy by my house. They had 20 freaking units. Once you brake up between all 9 models, they had 2 of each and 3 of a one of the models. Why not revamp the production and delay the launch until they actually have enough to sell. Steve Jobs boasting the March 11th launch day made one think that you could actually buy a unit that day. But apparently only people that camped out for hours where able to get there hands on one, not much of a launch if you don’t have nearly enough to meet demand. But I know it would be like this, no pre-orders means low inventory.
I was told the shortage at Apple retail stores is because the VP of Apple is in Austin, TX at SXSW and wanted to make sure the inventory at their “pop up” stores is sufficient. The place to get one seems to be in Austin.
How people can wait in line for hours for this shit is beyond me.
Go play with your Xoom
I’d wager that a great many things are beyond you.
Hurry up and wait!
my 64 GB wireless iPad 2 is still showing delivery of March 22 to 29. We’ll see if it changes….
My iPad 1 is still a great machine….
In twenty seven years of Apple/Mac use, I’ve never really been overly critical of Apple. The lack of iPad 2 availabity on launch day is Chicken S@$&. Apple new better and I believe they have disappointed many, many loyal followers. Shame on you Apple.
Still, I can hardly wait for delivery of mine.
Houston we have a major problem… delay the iPad 2!
The iPad 2 suffers bleeding on the display!!! It’s all over the net and reported on the Apple forums! Just like the light leaks on iPhone 3G/3GS … this is a major issue and people aren’t happy… the delay isn’t about sales… it’s about manufacturing issues once again in China! Just like the 27″ iMac displays…
Go Apple Go! lol