Overwhelming iPad 2 demand continues, Apple's online orders now ship in 4-5 weeks - Page 3

silly idea, not happening, move on...

I ordered on-line at 12:50 am. PST on day one and just now received in Sacramento. It went from Shenzhen CN to Lantau CN to Anchorage AK to Oakland CA to Sacramento CA in 4 days

Apple has a winner on their hands It is a great improvement from version 1. The slimmed down version is easy to hold.

Which model did you get? I ordered my 64GB Wifi+3G ten minutes earlier than you, but haven't even got a tracking number yet. Just the same old "Ships in 3-5 business days" message.

When I spoke with the Apple rep over the phone, he said the 32 / 64 was being shipped faster because they had less of a demand....

I ordered the 16gb 3g at 412am est and my boss ordered her 32gb 3g at 430 est... mine is still waiting to be shipped while my boss should be getting her Ipad on Wednesday!

Well not me, Still waiting to ship my 64GB 3G and I ordered at 4:03 EST... I wonder if white is more of a wait at this point but my wife wanted white for when I hand it down to her

Well that is clearly bullshit and you demonstrate your own ignorance. Japan makes more than 40 percent of the world's electronic components. Some of the world's largest suppliers of key materials are based in the disaster zone. Shin-Etsu Chemical and Sumco Corporation supply most of the worlds silicon wafers, both ceased production at factories in the region, and there is no date when production will restart or if many workers will be able to return to work, given the sheer number of homeless.

Sony, Sanyo and Panasonic are the biggest battery cell suppliers. Panel prices may also climb. While these may be manufactured elsewhere, they still require Japanese-made components and adhesives for production.

So, while you were so quick to jump down my throat and demonstrate what a world class wanker you are, it's clear that the supply of many key components used in the manufacture of consumer electronics products, including Apple's, will be impacted for weeks if not months.

I ordered the basic black 16 gb wifi. I also ordered the blue poly cover but they tried to deliver to my office on Saturday then was supposed to redeliver today but no sign of it when I left! Tracking number for cover appeared by end of day Friday, then tracking number for iPad showed up on Saturday.

When has Apple ever assembled their own hardware to provide the success/failure evidence?

I'm not talking about taking sand and turning it into glass. As for focus, what of the unibody milling, the white paint. I'd say Apple is already heavily involved in developing the production methods (by altering existing tech they find). It is only the labour force they don't control and even Apple invests a lot of time in various training programs (as reported) for them.

I'm talking about hmm, automated assembly. I reckon in the space of a bedroom you could design a two stage reprogrammable build station for devices up to MacBook size, at least iPod, iPhone, iPad size. One "half" mills and recycles unibodies. The other half has hmm 4 robotic manipulators that assemble into the unibody.

You define a block size, say iPad but one iPad block is 9 iPhones/touch, 36 nanos and 54 shuffles. Better yet it is metal powder and it is similar to rapid prototyping, no waste and it can make all products.

Ultimately all CE devices will be printed in layers.

There is no reason not to innovate and lead the way. The shop becomes the plant. There are all sorts of unexplored cost effiencys. Take the aluminium. How many middlemen and transports occur from extraction to an iPad in store. On the scale of raw material Apple uses they could negotiate direct, skip all the intermediate steps and make as required. The in store unit turns a pallet of aluminum into whatever is required, in a launch phase it pumps out the hot item, otherwise it creates whatever devices is needed to restock, it would respond to what is selling in its store

Let alone starving future and existing competitors.

I am in agreement with PixelDoc

At any rate many of Apple's "inventions" or "innovations" have been around manufacturing, materials, JIT etc. It keeps inventories low.

You don't make 50 million of something without being clued up on how it is done and you would constantly be working to optimize the process. Your contracted assembler isn't, they want more money not less through efficiency.

The only part I think would be currently difficult is chip and mainboard. Perhaps if you could take a huge step and take FPGA to the next level you could make a sort of future proof production. More likely ad I designed a decade plus ago you have a standard module, that module powers your phone product and up, all the same. If you scale to desktop and server you chain them.

That way everything you make is one thing just in different form factors/purposes. I think we will see this from Apple within 5 years.

Hmm. From my straw poll on a few other sites, it looks like the 16GB models may be shipping earlier than the rest. Purely anecdotal, though.

My cover and AV adapter have been sitting on Lantau Island for the past couple of days. I hope they get a chance to go see the giant buddha statue while they're in the area. It's very impressive.

It wouldn't surprise me at all if this were the case.


I was wondering when someone would point that out. The margins on those smart covers must be huge, much more than on the iPad - that is the genius of it all.

I passed on the Apple case when I got my original iPad, opting for a much cheaper (but uglier) aftermarket one. When I upgrade to the iPad 2, I'm pretty sure I'll be getting a smart cover, possibly in leather.

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I'm not trying to put down the iPad 2, but I wonder how much of this is due to the improvements in iOS 4.3?


That's great to hear. My only complaint about the original iPad was the weight/holding comfort. I'm glad to hear that the iPad 2 is improved in this regard, even if on paper it may not appear to be that much of an improvement.

You walk around with that much cash in a "not so good" neighborhood?

Funny how all these stories are now coming out about how Apple's supply chain is being disrupted by events in Japan. Mate, you clearly don't know your arse from a hole in the ground. You come on here, slag someone off and accuse them of being ignorant when they know a damn sight more than you do. Then you are proven wrong time and again.

Apple's lead times are increasing through a constraint on components from Japan. This is regardless of demand levels.

Is it safe to pick up an iPad 2 on eBay or do you risk getting scammed?

I think every conparison I've seen had both models on v4.3.

I ordered two 32gb 3G models on Saturday. Confirmation email from Apple says April 28 for delivery.