iPad EU News (Abandon all hope, ye who enter here..) ("Are you nuts?!" - Steve)

[ct2k7]

We had a little discussion about two years ago in Business studies regarding: inability to meed international product release targets.

In a team's case scenario, they had released a product into a country and they had unprecedented demand for the product. Unlike Apple, the business did not have prior information or statistics to predict any sales information.

The team decided, on the advice given from someone from LSE (London School of Economics) that they should continue with the international release, however, create more hype by not reaching 100% selling potential capacity in the original country.

Now, let's put Apple in the case of the business, they would have had some initial sale predictions, given that they were very assertive of the App Store success, and their marketing showed some sort of prediction.

 

[applemike]

Ive been gone for 3 hours, and log on to this???!?!?!!?

Coming late may now,

I think im going to walk to the apple store and shout at someone for a bit.
thatll make me feel better

But very dissapointed with the move to may!!!

 

[watsonjm]

We had a little discussion about two years ago in Business studies regarding: inability to meed international product release targets.

In a team's case scenario, they had released a product into a country and they had unprecedented demand for the product. Unlike Apple, the business did not have prior information or statistics to predict any sales information.

The team decided, on the advice given from someone from LSE (London School of Economics) that they should continue with the international release, however, create more hype by not reaching 100% selling potential capacity in the original country.

Now, let's put Apple in the case of the business, they would have had some initial sale predictions, given that they were very assertive of the App Store success, and their marketing showed some sort of prediction.

I think the stock issue might be a part cover up. To change the date this close has got to be something bigger. Producton problems would be my guess

 

[redgaz26]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_1_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile/7E18 Safari/528.16)

so sorry lads, feel bad for you, for the people who were asking about custom charges, I picked mine up this afternoon and there was no customs levys only vat to be paid, plus that stupid 13.50 fee off parcel force.

Apple should be looking after all it's customers not just the u.s ones, J.M.O

How much was your vat??

 

[ct2k7]

I think the stock issue might be a part cover up. To change the date this close has got to be something bigger. Producton problems would be my guess

Production problems would be an issue, but given that Apple had since about November at least to start production.... , how many do you think are being produced daily?

 

[iJock]

There is after all no guarantee that the IPad will ship in late May. Steve Jobs has bent the truth already within a week of confirming late april delivery. The announcement of pre-orders is only away to prop up the apple share price, it in no way guarantees that Apple will actually deliver. So far they have failed to deliver on any long term dates that they have specified. Even the April the 3rd date was outside of th "under 60 days" that Steve jobs specified in the launch presentation (actually 66 days).

Maybe it is now time for International Customers to Boycott the Ipad for a year, after, all it is only 10 months until version 2.0 to come out. Further, it is in September/October/November that iPhone OS4 comes out and who says that A4 processor will be able to really take advantage of the ipad version of the operating system (could be the equivalent of the iPhone 3G).

Remember, version 2.0 will have to have some significant upgrades (e.g. camera) on the first version. i say this because if the high sales numbers are true, then Apple will need to provide some serious upgrades in order to get resales. Who is going to upgrade when there is little extras offered.

This is the case with the iPhone 3G and 3GS. Most 3GS were bought by new users rather than upgraders. Only when Apple saw that there was significant uptake of the Iphone have they come out with updates that people have been yelling out for. In order to try and get repeat customers and stop customers leaving. Why else do you think OS4 has made such a big change, it was not to attract new customers, who will be less tech savvy than those that have already bought one.

Further, why purchase an IPad in europe when it is guaranteed that no IBook store will open in the next months apart from maybe Britain. Afterall, most international Itunes stores lack most of the products tha american store has. Even the UK is still way behind the US store when it comes to options.

It is about time as customers we tell old Stevo in Cupertino, that we can affect his share price and his wealth just as much as the American's can.


Finally, there is no guarantee that UK telecoms will provide a nice internet package like AT&T, I put money on O2 and all to provide only monthly contratcs or sh***y pay as you go offers.

 

[parish]

I think the stock issue might be a part cover up. To change the date this close has got to be something bigger. Producton problems would be my guess

Agree - I was just about to post that it looks like all those rumours about production problems with the touch screens - that Apple denied at the time - may well have been the case.

I think Apple have tarnished their image (outside the US at least) with this, especially since it was only last week that Jobs was still saying late April.

As someone else said earlier, I wonder just how much of this unprecedented demand in the US is for iPads being bought to resell immediately on eBay?

 

[trevreyno]

If I buy an ipad from the US and it has a problem such as a dead pixel that people are experiencing what happens then? If I had a receipt from a US Apple store could I take it back to an Apple store over here? Cheers.

You could,but as they won't have any stock for a least 6 weeks i don't think they would be able to help you.

 

[watsonjm]

Production problems would be an issue, but given that Apple had since about November at least to start production.... , how many do you think are being produced daily?

No idea how many, i cudnt even begin to guess.

Very true on the Nov to start, but there has been reported problems with supplies of the screens in the past (i think this was blammed for the delay from march to april?) so was thinkin something like this, ie jst not enough bits to make enough for an international launch.

 

[applemike]

At least both the 3G and the Wifi models will be available at the same time here.

The US however are still going to be dispatching the 3G Orders at the end of april

This is going to far, I have friends in America who may be getting a call soon

 

[Boblister]

At least both the 3G and the Wifi models will be available at the same time here.

The US however are still going to be dispatching the 3G Orders at the end of april

This is going to far, I have friends in America who may be getting a call soon

Yes of course sure it will.....It was promised

 

[Ashmanspice]

Just seen the news....

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

I was hoping to have one for a trip that I'm going on early may. Not gonna happen now lol. Unless..

I was considering buying one from a UK seller from eBay for almost 600 hard earned pounds. It's a bit (a lot???) steeper then I want but I really would like to have it before my trip. What do you think?

 

[Streethawk]

Straight to most read on the BBC news website within an hour.

 

[ct2k7]

No idea how many, i cudnt even begin to guess.

Very true on the Nov to start, but there has been reported problems with supplies of the screens in the past (i think this was blammed for the delay from march to april?) so was thinkin something like this, ie jst not enough bits to make enough for an international launch.

The touch screens shouldn't slow down things majorly, plus, these were reported this year - and from reports, Apple even took on other suppliers.

At least both the 3G and the Wifi models will be available at the same time here.

The US however are still going to be dispatching the 3G Orders at the end of april

This is going to far, I have friends in America who may be getting a call soon

Yes of course sure it will.....It was promised

I think it might be delayed one more time... June/July - to coincide with the iPhone release, thereby completely messing my own schedule and my development schedule.

I've had to turn down potential customers because I don't have an iPad to test with. I could get a US iPad - but what if it has a few dead pixels? What do I do then, return to seller or back to Apple? Either way, it will take a while.

 

[crowmanuk]

I'm afraid I cut and run .... waited until Monday and then bought a 64gb from eBay for just over £620 .... sure it will be cheaper on UK launch but I find that half the fun of these things is being part of the learning process. Ended up having to bid on numerous ones until I won ... the market is pretty bouyant. Not happy with Apple for delaying but clearly they have their reasons. Mine arrived at 9am this morning and haven't put it down yet !

 

[donster28]

Maybe it is now time for International Customers to Boycott the Ipad for a year, after, all it is only 10 months until version 2.0 to come out. Further, it is in September/October/November that iPhone OS4 comes out and who says that A4 processor will be able to really take advantage of the ipad version of the operating system (could be the equivalent of the iPhone 3G).

Oh c'mon...who will boycott the iPad when it's released. Good luck on that. People are still going to flock the stores to get one.

Apple is still the winner on this.

From my experience owning the wifi iPad so far, the moment people see and touch this thing, all will be forgiven.

 

[Ashmanspice]

Straight to most read on the BBC news website within an hour.

I thought you meant it would be on the technology page but it's on the front of the website!

Watch those ebay prices rise!

 

[watsonjm]

Any one think Steve will send us a few for our Apple stores? at least then we can get hands on with one, even if only for 10 mins

 

[stu212]

I say we nominate someone in the forums to fly to the US pick up a bunch of iPads and fly back to the UK with them!

 

[AdamA9]

So much demand for a device that doesn't do Flash??

Wake up Adobe, your Flash isn't nearly as important as you think it is.

That must be quite a pill to swallow.

Because 500,000 units have sold... Right Acording to a study by Google, there are over 2.5b computers in use worldwide, you think because 500,000 iPads have been sold, and maybe double that are waiting that Adobe are worried? PC and Mac both support Flash, the Iphone, iPod and iPad don't. It will take a lot more for Adobe to get worried. Maybe if ALL Mac products stopped supporting flash, then there might be cause for concern, but right now, I doubt they're bothered by it...

More people are pissed at Apple for not supporting Flash, than at Adobe for continuing with Flash.

O2 have just broken their silence about the iPad on Twitter:

All mobile phone companies have.

I have to say I do love this quote on the Apple site, I'm paraphrasing slightly...

We know that many international customers waiting to buy an iPad will be disappointed, angy and some suicidal by this news, but we hope they will be pleased to learn the reason—the iPad is a runaway success in the US thus far, and we're going to continue to let them enjoy their Pad's whilst you dream about holding yours.

Anyway, I'm just glad I don't need one. I'm happy to wait another month, hell with this news, I might just wait for Rev B to come out and buy me a new TV, the Samsung LED looks sexy, better than an iPad anyway

 

[LaNex]

Rats. FFS. Just got in to this.

Are we going to believe them when they say that pre orders will be available May 10th ?

 

[ct2k7]

Rats. FFS. Just got in to this.

Are we going to believe them when they say that pre orders will be available May 10th ?

By then, it might be delayed yet another month :/

 

[applemike]

I say we nominate someone in the forums to fly to the US pick up a bunch of iPads and fly back to the UK with them!

OK, if everyone on this thread who has posted, gives me £10 each, ill go to the US, buy as many as i can, then raffle all of them off to the people who agve me £10, so its gambling,

You give me £10 499 other people do, i get £5000, i buy 8 or 9 iPads, i come back, name in the hat, i send them out. simples

And i will actually do this

 

[Dodgeroo]

This whole delay thing is just crazy.

Apple says that this is due to the high demand in the US. Well isn't it safe to say that this is high demand is due to all the buyers who buy them and resell them on ebay to countries where the Ipad hasn't been released?

Its even an unintended consequence by Apple or just a ploy to get those quarter figures in.

'We sold 3 million Ipads in the first couple of weeks' What they wont say is that probably more then 2 million were bought and resold on sites to other countries where it was delayed.

If they had just released them worldwide at the sometime, the demand in the US probably wouldn't be that high

I was thinking the exact same thing.

Here's food for thought. Apple have just demonstrated that the US market is by far their first priority. (Understandably and all that, but still).

So if the 'unprecendented demand' continues through May and they can't fulfill US sales, then what? Another month's delay? Then what?

Meanwhile, as nwlondonlad says, a good proportion of the unprecedented demand might well be down to a high number of ebayers sucking up the stock. The longer the international launch is delayed, the more this will happen.

*sigh*

 

[Streethawk]

Part of me hopes another company release something better and it bites Apple in the arse. Not likely though.