Yes, the website that originally ran this story does seem to have a good track record when it comes to this. However, with it being effectively 8 days away and no invites sent out does raise an eyebrow or two. Also, it happening on a Thursday just seems off. There are a number of weekly printed publications that appear on news stands at the end of the week, so having an event on Thursday would take a bit of wind out of their sails.
Further, are they looking to have this hypothetical iPad in stores on the 24th for the initial roll-out? If yes, then I would have thought that this shortened announcement-to-retail window would pose further logistical challenges to Apple. Granted, an iPad is not an iPhone, so you would not expect its pre-orders to even approach the same numbers. That being said, if they are targeting an aggressive roll-out then I wouldn't be surprised if delivery companies once again get the thick end of the blame stick should deliveries start to slip through.
Finally, lest we forget that, after the new iPhone was announced, we had a couple of days to digest and decide whether to pre-order. If 16th is the unveiling date, and they are targeting the following Friday as the retail date (no indication of this, but there is a pattern of such behaviour), people will need to make up their mind pretty quickly if they want to get in on the act. This is especially true if those rumours of shortages due to display issues are to be believed.
While Jim is the man in the know, I would not take the fact that he remained quiet as evidence of anything other than that.
