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macrumors bot
Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
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020521-ipadavail.jpg

iPad 2 availability continues to get worse with Apple's online store citing 4-5 week ship times for new iPad 2 orders. Several Apple Retail stores are planning on opening early tomorrow to accommodate the continued high demand for the iPad. Based on what we've heard from readers, retail stores have remained sold out since the initial launch day. Apple has not released official numbers but it seems supplies have been limited since launch day. Apple's only statement on the matter has been that there has been "amazing" demand for the new product.

020744-arrived.jpg

Meanwhile, at least some of the first online orders are arriving. One reader reported to us that his first day AT&T order for the new iPad arrived on Monday. Many who have ordered through Apple's online store are still waiting for their initial orders.

Article Link: Online iPad 2 Availability Pushed to 4-5 Weeks, First Deliveries Arrive
 

Yebot

macrumors 6502
Jan 6, 2004
362
2
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8F190 Safari/6533.18.5)

April Fool's!
 

Dammit Cubs

macrumors 68020
Jul 31, 2007
2,122
718
The demand on this product is just a bit ridiculous. Would love to buy it but I have a macbook air.
 

lostngone

macrumors 65816
Aug 11, 2003
1,431
3,804
Anchorage
Guess we know why..

Well I guess we now know why they announced it and then waited weeks before even taking orders.

I can only imagine how back-ordered they would be now if they started taking pre-orders on the announce date.
 

smulji

macrumors 68030
Feb 21, 2011
2,996
2,889
Production / Manufacturing Issues Rumors

Looks like those rumors of production / manufacturing issues had a sliver of truth to them. Maybe Apple were better off launching April 1 for USA and April 29th for International countries.

Even with those launch dates Apple would still be ahead of the competition so there's no need to be overly agressive and launch early with limited supply just to get a leg up on the competition.

Waiting three extra weeks won't kill anyone...well...at least not me.
 

smulji

macrumors 68030
Feb 21, 2011
2,996
2,889
Well I guess we now know why they announced it and then waited weeks before even taking orders.

I can only imagine how back-ordered they would be now if they started taking pre-orders on the announce date.

Well, look on the bright side...at least by waiting the extra 5 weeks the chances of your unit having the light bleeding issue, that many are already experiencing, will be much less.
 

b0ng0c0ng0

macrumors newbie
Sep 27, 2007
5
0
Japan

I wonder if there are any Japanese made parts in there. The quake/tsunami is going to affect a lot of consumer electronics devices and companies depending on how long it takes for them to get back in action. I suspect a lot of the chips are probably produced in China or Korea though.
 

SamTheGeek

macrumors newbie
Jan 3, 2009
24
0
It's the rumors

Well I guess we now know why they announced it and then waited weeks before even taking orders.

I can only imagine how back-ordered they would be now if they started taking pre-orders on the announce date.

It's all about the rumor machine with Apple. I wouldn't be surprised if there was a significant drop-off in iPad sales in the middle of January, so there's now been an almost 2-month break in sales, corresponding with the beginning of major media reporting rumors.
Let's say, for my tired brain's sake, that Apple was selling the iPads at a rate of 1.5 million per month. If they lost even a third of those sales (and it was probably a higher rate than that), then there's nearly a million deferred sales, purchases by people who were going to buy an iPad anyways. Add in the people who waited for the second generation (me), those who are upgrading, and people who were finally convinced by the new features, and there's probably 1.5-2 million people wanting the iPad, in addition to its 'normal' sales rate. That's a doubling of volume. Of course it will be backordered.

tl;dr lots of people want the iPad 2, some waited, some upgrading, and some want a white one

Speaking of, my iPad 2 (purchased at 1:01AM PST) still hasn't shipped, but my Smart Cover arrives tomorrow. Why, Apple?
 

fertilized-egg

macrumors 68020
Dec 18, 2009
2,109
57
...
so there's no need to be overly agressive and launch early with limited supply just to get a leg up on the competition..

Or maybe they just didn't expect demand this high? Mind you that if we are to believe the analysts, Apple sold more than double the number of tablets in two days as Motorola estimated to sell this quarter and also double the number of the first iPad sold in its first weekend. Plus as they were stocking up more iPads, it probably was getting harder to avoid a leak.
 

rquick

macrumors regular
Jun 20, 2010
122
0
I suspect the point of the whole process is to generate longer lines for a longer period of time. The media generally only reacts to what they can produce on video and long lines of people camping outside Apple stores makes for good video on the evening news. First they have absolutely no stock available to start shipping on Friday to those people who stayed up into the wee hours to order. They had already shipped everything they could make into the retail channels. Having the device go on sale in the stores at 5 pm on Friday guaranteed long lines and they had plenty of opportunity to get the video and get it onto the evening news. And the stock goes up. Now they are opening early tomorrow morning after a serious restocking today and there will be more lines and lots of happy customers, news at 11. Face it people, they want you in a line so they can take your picture. In a sense, we are all pawns in the stock market game that companies play on behalf of their shareholders. Interesting fact - Fortune said in a recent article that 72% of Steve Jobs' personal fortune is in Disney stock he got from selling Pixar. Just a random factoid.
 

Piggie

macrumors G3
Feb 23, 2010
9,182
4,112
Oh, I don't know.

Call me suspicious if you like, but if they had kept, as almost everyone thought, to their expected "One year since the last launch" they would of had another 4 to 5 weeks to ramp up production and build up stocks around the world so they could of launched with good stocks in shops and on-line.

Instead they launch 4 to 5 weeks early and just don't have anything like enough to even have much stock in stops, let along on-line.

Surly Apple don't plan THIS Badly do they?
 

lostngone

macrumors 65816
Aug 11, 2003
1,431
3,804
Anchorage
Supply and demand conspiracy.

I doubt Apple is limiting or holding back production/supply to elevate demand. Sure it makes good press to show the demand is there with long lines however 5 week wait for product does not make good press.

Also Apple doesn't have much of an incentive to do this, they are still first in the tablet market and holding back stock just slows the roll-out and makes your customers upset.

On the other hand Apple knows you are still going order it no matter how upset you get or how long you have to wait.
 

Rodimus Prime

macrumors G4
Oct 9, 2006
10,136
4
Or maybe they just didn't expect demand this high? Mind you that if we are to believe the analysts, Apple sold more than double the number of tablets in two days as Motorola estimated to sell this quarter and also double the number of the first iPad sold in its first weekend. Plus as they were stocking up more iPads, it probably was getting harder to avoid a leak.

No apple knew it would be high and there would be a massive shortage valid marketing. People know it hard to get so they want it more increasing demand. This mean more sells over the long term.
Google tp shortage in 1973. Explains it really well. And yes we did have a tp shortage in 1973 all thanks to a late night tv joke. Took weeks to clear it up
 
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