Right with you Aswitcher - would not be a surprise at all. Especially given the ridiculous waiting periods in the US, how on Earth are a few hundred thousand iPods going to materialise to meet demand there and overseas?
It's not a surprise that we always get the short end of the stick - what's wrong with shipping the damn things globally from the factory? What is surprising is the fact that they continually set target deadlines that they haven't a hope in the world of meeting...
April... July... December (only a matter of time)... whatever.
Interesting though that what the Apple rep allegedly said seems to imply that Australian preorders will be met - I find this a little strange since they have not yet even opened up preordering on the Apple Australia Online store. Given their relationship with resellers, I would think that the reseller preorder numbers don't mean anything to them viz the orders they receive direct - it will just end up being a catfight between the resellers on how many they can secure to fill their backorders and Apple Australia trying to satisfy direct demand from their online store. And those fights tend to be won by Apple Australia...
Anyway, time will tell. I hope I eat my words, but I'm not optimistic.