http://www.appleinsider.com/article.php?id=2219
"One AppleInsider correspondent with a bulk order for the new notebooks at stake did some additional digging. He was informed through his Apple channel that the company did not foresee manufacturing ramp of the new models beginning for at least another week."
So, if it's true, that means anybody who was re-notified of shipping for the week of the 13th shouldn't expect it until the week of the 20th at the earliest..
not that i am an expert, but this seems unlikely to me. there are a few fishy things about this situation.
if apple never planned to 'ramp production' on the 17" until next week, why did they give us estimates of 7-10 days when we ordered the first day?
if there is a component shortage, it can't be any of the new equipment -- the wnic, the hard drives, and the 2.33GHz merom are all available on 15" c2d mbps which have been shipping for a while. but, it's also unlikely it's 17"-specific equipment like casing or displays, since these should be largely identical to the cd 17"s, of which there are plenty.
obviously it isn't a matter of overwhelming demand, for if this were the case, at least a few people -- a quantity equal to the demand they expected -- would have 17"s. by the same token, the delay of my machine has nothing to do with my CTO (as apple reps keep suggesting) for somebody would have gotten a stock model by now.
i believe that this is not a forseen issue, and i think it is probably not a matter of component shortage. i believe that something has gone wrong with the 17" models. perhaps a batch was made, and was discovered to have terrible QC problems, and it is taking time to sort this out. this, incidentally, would explain why so many of us have been unable to cancel for so long, yet seen nothing of our machines either being built or shipping. -- the cancel lock could have been placed when the machines were first built, and not released when they were discovered to be rubbish.
it's very poor of apple not to keep us informed about what is happening. for a laptop with an expected lifetime of 2 or 3 years, a month or two delay is pretty serious stuff, and we deserve at least to know why, that we might reconsider.