iPad’s Mar. Shipment Date Slips Into April Amid Talk of Delays

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Word that Apple will ship the iPad April 3 and accept pre-orders Mar. 12 comes on the heels of the second analyst to talk delays. Thursday, an analyst said a ‘minor hiccup’ in production means Apple will need to wait until at least April before manufacturing ramps-up to 1 million iPads a month.

Temporary production issues resulted in just 200,000 to 250,000 iPads produced in March after an unexpected slowdown in February for Taiwanese manufacturers, according to Vijay Rakesh, analyst with Think Equity.

The analyst’s note to investors seemed to echo an earlier caution by Peter Misek of Canaccord Adams. Misek said Monday “unspecified production problems” could limit early iPad numbers to 300,000 and possible push the tablet’s launch date past March.

However, Rakesh told investors he did not see a serious flaw in the iPad as a cause for the temporary delay. “The delays do not appear to be (from) glass or manufacturing process” issues, he said.

After the initial talk of a delay in shipping the iPad, Taiwan-based suppliers refuted speculation that the tablet device would be held-up, claiming Apple could ship 600,000 to 700,000 in March and 1 million in April.

In its Friday announcement, Apple noted the April 3 shipment date applied only to the Wi-Fi version of the iPad. For those waiting for 3G support, the Cupertino, Calif. company said that version would ship “in late April.”

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[via AppleInsider]

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Charli
they never gave a March date. that was all rumor. they said ‘late march’. so anything up to March 31 counts. they missed it by 3 days. in part because they pretty much always do major launches on the weekend and Apr 2 is Good Friday so a lot of folks could be at church (if not work or school)
hyperbole much
Maxx Wyler
I agree with Charli. Late March was always the targeted release date. I thought that the word from Apple was that they moved the launch from a probable Tuesday to the next Saturday (which just happened to fall in April) to better accommodate early adopters. I find it so childish and amusing that a little rumor earlier this month that a manufacturing issue might delay shipment has now turned into the reason that the iPad is shipping a couple of days later and now the delay is software related. WOW. must have been a really big glitch in development or manufacturing to cause such a delay.