Citing stronger-than-expected U.S. demand, Apple said it delayed by one month the international launch of its iPad tablet, until the end of May.
The company said it sold more than 500,000 iPads during the gadget's first week of sales in the United States, and "demand is far higher than we predicted and will likely continue to exceed our supply over the next several weeks." Apple will announce international iPad pricing and begin taking pre-orders May 10. The delay affects iPad hopefuls in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Interestingly, Apple also said it has taken a large number of pre-orders for the 3G version of the iPad, which will run on AT&T Mobility's network in the United States. The 3G version is set to go on sale in the United States at the end of this month.
AT&T has said it expects the majority of iPad users to use WiFi as their primary data connection. However, it said that is prepared for increased data traffic. "We will monitor the usage as the device gets out there," Rick Lindner, senior executive vice president and CFO at AT&T, said recently. "If it turns out substantially different, we will adapt."
Further, AT&T recently disclosed that the prepaid unlimited data access plan of $29.99 per month for the iPad will not cap users' data at 5 GB per month, as the carrier does for laptop, netbook and USB modem subscribers.
For more:
- see this WSJ article
- see this release
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