In a classic case of another Apple launch, another supply shortage, the company has sold out of the new iPad in every country where it will launch the tablet on Friday, and is not expecting to meet new orders for up to three weeks.
The delay has been blamed in part on the iPad 3’s high resolution screen, with one analyst at DisplaySearch, claiming manufacturing the the 2,048 x 1,536 pixel screen was a “challenge” for Sharp, Samsung and LG Display.
In the UK, there is a delay forecast of two to three weeks, while in the US and Canada, all iPad pre-orders placed through Apple’s online store will now ship on March 19, three days after the on-sale date. Meanwhile Hong Kong’s online store says that the new iPad is currently unavailable.
Customers who placed an order very early in the pre-sale process were told they will receive the tablet on Friday, March 16, according to reports.
Last year, the Apple iPad 2 sold out on its first day of availability in the States, with Apple acknowledging it could not keep up with demand.
In an April 2011 conference call with Wall Street analysts, Tim Cook, at the time its chief operations officer, called demand “staggering” and admitted orders were bogged down in the “mother of all backlogs.”
