Apple puts global iPad launch on hold while it refuels

Sure, it would be great if your supply and demand estimates always came out on target, but if they’re going to be off, unexpectedly high demand is certainly the preferable problem. With a mixture of apologetic regret and glee, Apple announced this morning that it just wasn’t going to have enough iPads on hand to start worldwide sales on schedule.

“Although we have delivered more than 500,000 iPads during its first week, demand is far higher than we predicted and will likely continue to exceed our supply over the next several weeks as more people see and touch an iPad. We have also taken a large number of pre-orders for iPad 3G models for delivery by the end of April,” the company said in a statement. “Faced with this surprisingly strong U.S. 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. We know that many international customers waiting to buy an iPad will be disappointed by this news, but we hope they will be pleased to learn the reason — the iPad is a runaway success in the U.S. thus far.”