Given that this is not the first global launch of this product, I suspect the priority will be making sure that everyone gets their iPads no later than Friday, rather than worrying about some getting theirs a day early.
Well I didn't even think of that but yeah, that's another very good point.
How many iPad's do we think TNT and UPS are collectively dealing with here? Would it be a conservative or unrealistic estimate of more than 100,000? And that's before accessories, which at a guesstimate (and again, airing on the conservative side) would roughly be 1 per iPad.. with people who ordered 2-3 accessories compensating for those who ordered none. That's a LOT of stock for TNT and UPS to deal with.
I'm not really sure. I don't know a great deal about how the courier services work, so won't pretend otherwise, but something tells me if they have mountains of boxes for delivery tomorrow that they know have to meet Fridays launch day, they'll get them out tomorrow.
Intentionally or otherwise though, I think the sheer volume of iPad's and accessories will mean some will slip through. Even If I don't get mine tomorrow, I won't be at all surprised to see reports of others receiving theirs tomorrow. It's going to be an agonising day..