iPads in Short Supply as Online Orders Pushed to 3-4 Weeks

[AzJacko]

At the Scottsdale Apple Store, I was told that all IPads were sold. And no new ones were expected for a month.

The apple ee who told me this was not very personable, so he may have just been so tired and frustrated that he was giving me a quick brushoff.

 

[ten-oak-druid]

Just part of the Apple Hype Building machine.

They are throwin it into overdrive with this so-called shortage. Keep on playing Apple, your ability to do so will not be here forever.

Please compare and contrast the three top tablets other than the ipad so that people who would like an alternative to the ipad have a chance of separating all the various alternatives.

As for Apple's "hype" I believe you are simply used to the small sales numbers of competitors like Samsung. I saw you posting on the thread about the longs lines for the ipad so I know you understand the demand is there.

 

[kazmac]

Pre-orders would have been a good idea

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Apple should have allowed pre orders as it does whenever it releases new product, but they decided to create buzz and hype and lines to drive sales. I played that game for iPhone 1, 3G & iPad 1 but no more. I'm as big an Apple dork as there is but I'm done waiting in line for 6 hours to buy an updated product.
As a side, my local Best Buy only received 100 total iPad units & sold out immediately.
Lots of pissed off potential customers.
Again, if Apple allowed preorders they could have gaged the roll out much better.
<off my soapbox>

Agreed. A better plan would be: Pre-orders yesterday and then physical launch in late March. That way Apple could lessen the amount of online order ship times and less folks would walk away unhappy. Apple would still get the hype and the $...

With this info, I won't expect iPads until April, if and when I finally jump. It won't be for iPad 2, (I'll wait for 4G and several other previously mentioned factors).

I don't like the hype either. It's a part of corporate reality, but isn't what inspires me to buy Apple.

 

[warschauer]

So why launch when supply isn't enough?

I mean if they really did want to sell to every willing customer in the first few days and weeks of the launch, why launch it when they don't have enough?

They could have launched April 11th if they determined that one more month meant double the supply to sell.

Face it, Apple likes those long lines and telling people "we don't have enough." They like the frenzy it creates. Watch how in 2 weeks everyone can magically get an iPad at any store without any issue.

Honeycomb was just released and they are facing potential competition from Android tablets and others. The media "meme" a few weeks ago was that Apple was falling behind the competition in tablets (no cameras, lower speed and ram, etc.). Now the media meme is that Apple is virtually untouchable in tablet space. It doesn't take much brains to see that delaying this a month could have potentially hurt the iPad's momentum. That was a bigger threat to Apple than having some customers wait a couple of weeks to get an iPad.

 

[hismikeness]

I live in a town in Oregon 1 mile from the 3 Portland Apple Stores, 30 minutes from the Salem BestBuy and don't have a WalMart (I know, right?) but there is a Target. I call the Target last night (Friday), they said they didn't even get their shipment in. I was inquiring about a 32gb WiFi in white. He said their shipment, which he was led to believe was going to be 8 total, was not confirmed as to what versions would be on the pallet. So I called the rural WalMart about 15 minutes away, and they were told by Apple they wouldn't get their shipments of iPad 2s until they sold their stock of iPads. They didn't know when that might be, since they still had "a lot."

Either way, my annual bonus (smaller than expected ) doesn't auto deposit until Tuesday, so I will order then, and hope that I get it by Spring break, but more likely first of April. I had someone lined up to float me the money until Tuesday if I could've wrangled one up.

 

[OMEGA PUNK]

So why launch when supply isn't enough?

I mean if they really did want to sell to every willing customer in the first few days and weeks of the launch, why launch it when they don't have enough?

They could have launched April 11th if they determined that one more month meant double the supply to sell.

Face it, Apple likes those long lines and telling people "we don't have enough." They like the frenzy it creates. Watch how in 2 weeks everyone can magically get an iPad at any store without any issue.

I completely agree. .

 

[Shanpdx]

Sorry dude, I'm gonna have to call you on this one (you're comment above is complete B.S. - at least in my neck of the woods). Last year when the original iPad launched you couldn't just walk right in to an Store and pick one up for at least three months. Every iPad was spoken for the second the shipment hit the floors. Oh... and I live in a major metropolitan area that has four Stores within 25 miles of each other - not braggin' just sayin'.

not true in all the places,

I picked up iPad 1 in Portland (metro area), Oregon on the first day, with out any reservation or anything on first day ...

so pre-orders definitely the way to go, pre-orders goes few days earlier and the in store sales follows after ...

if you plan well, why people need to stay in line add security, mall chaos and unhappy customers when they cannot get the product and so on... it is not just worth it,

a successful product is successful product no matter what happens ...

verizon iPhone sales still might be stronger than people think what the numbers are and there are reasons for slow sales on the verizon iPhone (iPhone 5 is nearer, LTE, and most of the customers already bought ATT iPhone 4 and so on)

 

[swb1192]

At the Scottsdale Apple Store, I was told that all IPads were sold. And no new ones were expected for a month.

The apple ee who told me this was not very personable, so he may have just been so tired and frustrated that he was giving me a quick brushoff.

I was there at 12pm and there were still iPads flying out the door. And a line. What time were you there?

 

[canadianpj]

Just part of the Apple Hype Building machine.

They are throwin it into overdrive with this so-called shortage. Keep on playing Apple, your ability to do so will not be here forever.

You should write for this website. Let's face it, you know more than anyone else here that this is a fake shortage.

 

[smaffei]

This may have something to do with it;

http://www.appleinsider.com/article...could_limit_apples_initial_ipad_2_supply.html

Here's a theory... The backlight bleed issue might have limited supply. Some people got bleeders because they were supposed to be pulled from the line and weren't by mistake. Or, Apple raised the minimal tolerance for the bleeding so as not to restrict supply (which would be a bad PR move).

 

[Buck987]

Sorry dude, I'm gonna have to call you on this one (you're comment above is complete B.S. - at least in my neck of the woods). Last year when the original iPad launched you couldn't just walk right in to an Store and pick one up for at least three months. Every iPad was spoken for the second the shipment hit the floors. Oh... and I live in a major metropolitan area that has four Stores within 25 miles of each other - not braggin' just sayin'.

This was not true where I picked up mine. The following week my local apple store had every model.

 

[AzJacko]

I was there at 12pm and there were still iPads flying out the door. And a line. What time were you there?

I was at the store at 2pm. It was crowded with people, but no iPad2s.

 

[Scottsdale]

I think Apple needed the big lines and hype which is why they didn't do a pre-order. When shipping times grow throughout the day it just forces everyone to rush to the lines so they don't have to wait. After they did the pre-orders with Verizon iPhone everyone said sales were slow because the lines were short. It is a win-win for Apple to do it this way and drives immediate demand. I hate it.

 

[3N16MA]

I wonder if the March 25th launch date for the other 26 countries will hold. I already have several family members wanting in on the iPad 2.

 

[Shanpdx]

I think Apple needed the big lines and hype which is why they didn't do a pre-order. When shipping times grow throughout the day it just forces everyone to rush to the lines so they don't have to wait. After they did the pre-orders with Verizon iPhone everyone said sales were slow because the lines were short. It is a win-win for Apple to do it this way and drives immediate demand. I hate it.

yeah, it is unnecessary to force all the customers to come to store ...

i wonder is it DELL or APPLE who went First, online sales of computers? and now it looks like they are going backwards ...

 

[Noisemaker]

It's pretty easy to tell who in this thread didn't get an iPad yesterday...

There's no reason to try to kill the excitement for the other people who were lucky enough to get them.

I was one of the lucky ones - and I just barely got one.

My experience was that there was a huge demand - far larger than that of the iPad 1. I live in a small town. Not the kind of place where there's a huge demand for anything, because the population is only around 50,000.

I hit Best Buy first - the only one in town, and the only one for around 150 miles in any direction. For the iPad 1, I was there first thing in the morning on April 3rd to get a ticket. I had no problem, there was no line, and I was easily able to get the 32GB that I wanted. Yesterday, however, they said that they would hand out tickets at 4:30. I was there right at 4:30, only to find a huge line waiting. I've never seen a line like this for anything in the area - no major game releases, the Xbox 360 or PS3, etc. I waited as they began handing out tickets, and about half-way through the line, the guy said that they only had 16GB models left. A little further through the line, and they were gone. I had about 5 people in front of me who didn't get tickets, and the same for me.

From there, I literally ran to Target - again the only one in town, and for about 150 miles. It's about 100 yards from Best Buy, so I was lucky. I literally outran other people from the Best Buy line that were making their way over, and got to the electronics section just in time to get one of the last tickets for a 64GB White Wifi model - all they received.
Target had only received FIVE total. All 64GB White Wifi models. They started handing tickets out at about 4:45, and I got 4/5.

I later found out that Wal-Mart had also gotten five total. No idea what Best Buy got, but it was significantly more than five.

Best Buy was the only place to receive accessories, and even so, their stock was sparse. They had the poly magnet covers in gray, pink, and orange, and the leather covers in light brown. That was about it - a couple third party cases and nothing else.

The demand for these seemed far greater than expected - even the store employees were all pretty shocked by it.

 

[farmboy]

You should write for this website. Let's face it, you know more than anyone else here that this is a fake shortage.

Kanban. Look it up.

Sometimes demand exceeds supply, plain and simple. No conspiracy necessary.

 

[Dooger]

And all this time I thought Bam Bam Bigelow was dead.

Mwhahahahahahahahaha!
Genius post. The rest of these guys are Philistines for missing this gem.

 

[Eye4Desyn]

not true in all the places,

I picked up iPad 1 in Portland (metro area), Oregon on the first day, with out any reservation or anything on first day ...

so pre-orders definitely the way to go, pre-orders goes few days earlier and the in store sales follows after ...

if you plan well, why people need to stay in line add security, mall chaos and unhappy customers when they cannot get the product and so on... it is not just worth it,

a successful product is successful product no matter what happens ...

verizon iPhone sales still might be stronger than people think what the numbers are and there are reasons for slow sales on the verizon iPhone (iPhone 5 is nearer, LTE, and most of the customers already bought ATT iPhone 4 and so on)

I don't doubt it for you where you are regarding iPad 1 launch. I was simply stating the reality where I live when it went on sale last year (and quickly looking to be a repeat again this year for iPad 2).

 

[Marzzz]

I was at the [Scottsdale Apple Store] at 2pm. It was crowded with people, but no iPad2s.

I was there about an hour before you, iPads were completely sold out at the launch yesterday, and they could not tell me when new ones would be available. Nothing about waiting a month for the next shipment, one employee told me they could come in at any time and it was first come first served. Like all the other launches, I imagine I will be able to walk into the store and pick one up in about two weeks, we'll see.....

 

[ivan2002]

Here we go

Last year the fanboys were out of control, this year it's the haters.
Let's review the silly things haters are saying:

1. Apple is faking shortages. Do you really think that huge sales numbers could be trumped by failure to deliver the product? In the mind of a hater, maybe. Not in minds of Steve Jobs, or Apple shareholders, OR Apple's customers.

2. Apple should have delayed the launch until they had enough stock on day 1. Yeah, they should have given more time to Motorola to sell as many Xooms as possible! Really.

3. People waiting in lines to get iPads are brainwashed by Apple. Yeah. No one has ever waited in line for anything that they could have gotten a bit later. Not for Star Wars, not for Wii.

The simple truths are these:

1. Apple can deliver only a certain number of iPads a month. The problem is, everyone wants it on day 1, not day 30 of that month. Do you really think that the entire month's worth of sales could somehow be delivered to the stores in a single day? No, you ship some today, and they can be sold tomorrow, and then you ship some tomorrow, etc. You can't ship all today, store them all today, and sell them all today. It's just not how the chain works.

2. iPad is stunningly superior to the competing products. I don't care about the specs. At the same price, you wouldn't choose a Toyota over a Mercedes, just because Toyota had better performance specs and optional equipment. There is something to be said about the build quality and design, don't you think? And when Mercedes even offers you lower pricing, there is really no contest.

At the end of the year Apple will have about 80% of this market. Would you really take a bet against it at this point? What else are you gonna say: that they cheated? This is not a game.

 

[trentropy]

They would probably get more iPad 2's on the shelves faster if both Apple employees were working hard to get it done. The one guy with his hands in his pockets isn't helping much.

 

[Surreal]

Yes, apple likes the press that long lines bring.

No, the shortage is not fake. What would they gain, after creating the lines, by NOT selling iPads that they have?

 

[GadgetAddict]

Last year the fanboys were out of control, this year it's the haters.
Let's review the silly things haters are saying:

1. Apple is faking shortages. Do you really think that huge sales numbers could be trumped by failure to deliver the product? In the mind of a hater, maybe. Not in minds of Steve Jobs, or Apple shareholders, OR Apple's customers.

2. Apple should have delayed the launch until they had enough stock on day 1. Yeah, they should have given more time to Motorola to sell as many Xooms as possible! Really.

3. People waiting in lines to get iPads are brainwashed by Apple. Yeah. No one has ever waited in line for anything that they could have gotten a bit later. Not for Star Wars, not for Wii.

The simple truths are these:

1. Apple can deliver only a certain number of iPads a month. The problem is, everyone wants it on day 1, not day 30 of that month. Do you really think that the entire month's worth of sales could somehow be delivered to the stores in a single day? No, you ship some today, and they can be sold tomorrow, and then you ship some tomorrow, etc. You can't ship all today, store them all today, and sell them all today. It's just not how the chain works.

2. iPad is stunningly superior to the competing products. I don't care about the specs. At the same price, you wouldn't choose a Toyota over a Mercedes, just because Toyota had better performance specs and optional equipment. There is something to be said about the build quality and design, don't you think? And when Mercedes even offers you lower pricing, there is really no contest.

At the end of the year Apple will have about 80% of this market. Would you really take a bet against it at this point? What else are you gonna say: that they cheated? This is not a game.

Forgot to mention the lack of preorders/reservations. Any thoughts on this?

 

[jw123]

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Out on the 25tg here in the UK. So... Do I get one???!