Apple does two kind of product launches...
Shipping Today (says Steve). The product is more or less ready to go, and most of the delay will be the result of massive orders... Example - My MacBook was a "shipping today" but still took two weeks to crawl all the way to me (thanks to the truly god-awful shipping Apple uses to the UK, and because the refresh generated lots of orders). The First Gen Nano took a week to reach me - again more a shipping thing and demand.
Shipping in N Weeks (says Steve). This should set of warning bells. Apple have just announced a new product, but are not yet ready to ship. The experienced will know never-ever-ever buy into an Apple product that is not yet shipping. Often they get it out the door around the time that was mentioned to somebody, but not everyone is going to get their new toys on that exact date. in fact virtually nobody will. No conspiracy with the MBA. It is no worse (and in fact is a lot better - some people are receiving their orders) than any other "Coming Soon!"
Thankfully I now have a local Apple Store. I'll just deal with them in future and avoid the grief that direct ordering (and the waiting for shipping and delivery) brings
The iPhone was an atypical product launch as it had a very long run-in and people knew it was coming for months. Apple were able to build up a stock to satisfy projected demand (we will probably never know how accurate they were), and so a lot of people did get it on the launch date. In contrast consider the Touch launch. It was a "Shipping in N Weeks" gig - and it took several weeks after launch before supply had settled down - like most other Apple launches for that matter...