Apple Will Delay Overseas Launch Of iPad Until End Of May

Apple, Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL) has done too good a job marketing its iPad in the US. Or, it underestimated the number of units it would need to start to sell the product overseas. It is highly likely Apple already knows what the early demand for the product will be outside of America and needs time to ramp up production.

Apple today announced that “Faced with this surprisingly strong US demand, we have made the difficult decision to postpone the international launch of iPad by one month, until the end of May. We will announce international pricing and begin taking online pre-orders on Monday, May 10.” The company also said it had sold 500,000 iPads in America and expected demand to stay strong.

Apple, which normally runs as perfectly as a company can, has blundered to the extent that customers outside the US will be disappointed with the delay. The lack of product is odd because many analysts believed that Apple would sell more than 500,000 units by now. That makes poor production planning the most likely cause for the problem

The iPad launch in the US has been successful enough that there is already a rush of developers competing for lead spots in the Apple App store. The iPad has also spawned a number of competitors, the most visible of which is the Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) Slate. Some analysts also view the Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN)  Kindle as competition for iPad sales

Apple has tripped, at least a bit. But, the interest in the iPad seems great enough that it probably won’t matter.

Douglas A. McIntyre