Sellout of latest iPad 2 shipment raises questions about Apple's international launch - Page 3

This could be a good strategy for a few days, but not been able to keep up with demand is very bad after a few days has you then start to loose customers. Since the ipad now has a month+ wait time, its obvious they cant keep up.

Yeah, the Apple ][ was a great machine. A lot of people's first introduction to Apple was through that machine.

Even back then I noticed the difference between using that machine and the machines made by others. I don't know exactly what it was, and I can't describe it fully, but it was like using a Xoom compared to an iPad2. Everything just felt better on it.

Will Apple's grip on this segment of devices remain as strong as the iPod on music players? The Zune is the latest device to succumb to the iPod. The latest generation of iPad wannabes are already out performed by the iPad 2.

The iPhone is certainly a different story though and shows Apple can't dominate that fast paced market for long.

My hopes for the iPod Touch are a 4" screen version this coming fall. That would take the iPod up a notch and quiet those seeking a smaller iPad.

This is not true, at least not anymore. If you sell something which do you prefer? Getting the money now or later. If you constraint supply not only you risk turning people away due to wait time but also you'll lose the constant stream of income you would otherwise get by fulfilling orders. The truth is Apple sell hot cake products, new and old users like it and want it. Simples.

The only people who wants thing they can't have is people with OCD issues - not the one you think people would OCD normally have like doing things or routine repeatedly but just like hoarding, it is obsessive, compulsive and unnecessary. I'm not saying that it is a horrible disease to have or people who do that will necessarily be diagnosed with it, I'm just saying what you said is just an assumption.





Those Chinese people are making them ipad 2 as fast as they can with the 10 fingers they have. Spare some thought for them with their low wages. Before anybody start, wages are determined by their immediate employer ie the factory and not the client like Apple.



Ha ha so true that. The correct way should get it first.
Where are the sea pirates when you want them to re-route the ships, eh?

Hi Mr.Jobs
I have already book a day off for the arrival of the iPad2 in Canada please don't disappoint me.

thank you
Ottawa mac user

Your logic is very poor.

The Corte Madera, CA store had no more 40 iPads and 160 people in line on the release date.
I was number 118.
No shipments on Monday or Tuesday.

1,000 per store is wildly optimistic, IMHO.

And you would have been OK with the launch being pushed back 2 months so that such production could be made to happen?

I see two main differences in the phone market that don't apply to the PMP or tablet markets:

#1 In the phone market there are carriers between the consumer and manufacturer. In addition, there are subsidies and contracts muddling things. Some of the Apple experience is lost in this scenario.

#2There were already well established manufacturers in the phone market with plenty of experience and the ability to take advantage of economies of scale.
*In the PMP/iPod arena, the market was nascent before the iPod and no one ever got going. Apple entered the market, took the lead and no one even came close to touching them. By the time the big competitors figured out how important the market could be (Microsoft) it was too late for them to make a relevant play.
*In the Tablet arena the market was even less than nascent. The existing offerings were so off track from what people wanted that they effectively ceased to exist when the iPad was introduced. It has taken a year for them figure out what was happening and get a first generation placeholder onto the market! Here the big difference from the iPod story is that EVERYBODY sees how important this market is going to be. The big guns will keep hammering away on tablets--they have to. I think Apple has the right idea--keeping prices very low, quality high and introducing a second generation fast. If Apple gets millions more in the lead and gets iPad 3 out before something popular (outside of the geek/spec-hound circles) challenges them, they might be able to lock the market up for a while!

One guy in France did even better: he flew to New York, waited in line at the Apple Store in SoHo, got his iPad 2, then got back on a plane and flew back to France. True story: http://www.pedestrian.tv/entertainme...ad-2/38465.htm

Tell me that isn't awesome.

Kinect is an ingenious combination of simple, off the shelf hardware with some very smart software. Guess how that is different from the iPad.

Hopefully they can ramp up faster than that. They are going to need to get to a few million a month to keep up with demand this year!

Just curious, though, if they did have to launch a month later (assuming that they decided before they announced anything so no "delay" would have to be admitted) what would the damage to Apple have been if they did this?
They still would have been coming in inside a year on the refresh and the original was still selling (I know 3 people who bought iPads in the month before iPad 2 was announced).
They have no competition yet! Are you worried that the Xoom would have taken off without the iPad 2 to block it? Are RIM and HP ready to ship?

The original would not have been selling, because they are OUT of it. Capacity was switched from one to the other, so no, there would have been zero iPad sales for that 4-6 weeks. And yes, when you can't send a product to market, some people will buy the competition. Or do you think that Droid on Verizon didn't hurt Apple in a real, long term way?

They also would have suffered damage to their reputation, because despite all the whining here, long lines of people desperate to buy your product is good for Apple's reputation. That assume that they do catch up with demand relatively soon, of course, but yes, frantic consumers beget frantic consumers.

Could it be that the 25th is when the real date for the international launch (and prices, these are still MIA in Australia) is announced, rather than the actual release date...? Just speculating based on experience with iPad 1.

I think it's going a bit too far to claim that Apple must be holding back on production capacity, just to drive up demand. Otherwise, they would do that with something unpopular like the old G4 Cube or the first AppleTV. Besides, with the iPad 2, they don't need to. Hadn't it occurred to you that maybe consumers really want the iPad 2 and don't require manipulation to stand in line? The "limited supply" tactics you are referring to are usually reserved for "As Seen On TV" crap ("supplies are limited, so don't delay, act now; operators are standing by"). Also, there is a risk with impulse buying that if you can't fill the customer's order in the heat of "tech lust", it will cool and the buyer might think, "gee I don't really need a tablet" or "gee, maybe I can buy a cheap Dell netbook instead".

Think about it.

Apple may have purposely constrained stock in the past (more because of being very conservative with their estimates and supply, rather than purely for hype).... but maybe you can tell me how to make 5 million iPads a month and sell it globally each month in ever more countries, stocking over 300 stores each day, without running into supply issues....

If at the end of the day only 1-2 million iPads are sold each month then there are artificial constraints. If they are selling through over 4 million each month, then the only constraint is how fast they can make and sell it.

Out you say? Funny, they are still for sale (new) at reduced prices through a variety of outlets--including though the Apple Store. Presumably they would not have had to discount them until the new version was ready.
But I hear you--I am not saying that having 4 million on hand at launch is the only thing to think about. Bare shelves for a month would be bad. Of course, that is what it feels like to consumers now, anyway...
In reality, if everything was pushed back a month and the original did run out it would have only been for a short while. Announce the new version and put them up for pre-order online. I doubt the anemic competition would have been able to make much hay with the hype and press that would follow Apple's intro...

This is really the point some people are trying to debate without descending into whining or criticism. I hope you can agree that people may differ on the long term consequences of repeated chronic shortages on new product rollouts. I will concede to you that I see that there are benefits to lines, anticipation and excitement. Will you concede that it is possible that it could also cause problems?

I'm tempted to do that to Australia from Asia. (5 hours, USD$400 return airfare). It would be awesome, except the Australian dates apparently aren't confirmed (eg. whether it's just an announcement on the 25th or will they have actual stock on the 25th etc etc).

Plus, it's kinda the same iPad, it's not like it has a Retina display or Xbox360 graphics you could hook up to a TV. I wanna get a white one but I have had a white iPhone 3GS, so...

I'm kind of bummed actually because I'm figuring out how to get into app development. The barriers to programming are higher than HTML and Flash ("with good reason", I hear some of you say).

Good Point . Apple is known for playing catch up with demand and that is a good thing. If there was enough around people would NOT want it as badly. Be assured that supply is arriving everyday and distribution is being made.
As for the international launch, most likely it will go off on time as anything else would signal a supply bottleneck. However how much supply will be delegated overseas remains to be seen.

Hell yeah it is an ongoing, extremely annoying problem for everyone. In fact, it is the worst aspect of Apple, which actually means they are doing quite well ... But it can be bloody annoying for everyone, that has to be admitted. But remember some people especially in Asia, thrive on having stuff no one else has yet.

I've read in at least 3 non-tech publications that supplies may be further constrained because some components will not be as available owing to the horrible disaster in Japan.

But nothing on an Apple site.

Does anyone have any real info about this?? Or was it just the non-tech press extrapolating wild speculations out of their butts?

No company has ever dealt with consistently super successful product launches like this before either. When you're pushing the manufacturing limits from day one it is hard to plan. iPad sold 300k at launch. Gossip is 500k to 1M units for iPad2 launch, if true how can Apple 1) anticipate that growth 2) manufacture to that huge growth in demand when Apple tried but couldn't mfg the original iPad in sufficient quantity over the prior year at lower volumes.

Xoom HOPES to sell 300k units in a quarter and Apple appears to have sold much more than that number at launch.

Just wanna mention, that the analyst numbers/predictions are almost squarly focused on the "consumer demand" and retail line-ups. Most are thoroughly missing the enterprise uptake of this device, and recognizing that the iPad 1 & 2 is the only serious device to consider at the moment.

Last years sell-thru totals are almost without a doubt 25-30%* "enterprise/small-business" adoption and testing for future large roll-outs, which many businesses decided to wait for until iPad 2 (justified IMO). *Anybody with any solid numbers?

This puts an incredible strain on Apple to keep the stores stocked, but also to be able to ship in quantity to businesses ASAP. Apple surely recognizes the value of both contingents, and is probably juggling a massive Catch-22 situation:

a) get the iPad 2 into the hands of the consumer ASAP for word of mouth advert; and
b) ship the quantities requested by business entities that have already made a serious (and to not be taken lightly this time around) commitment to Apple's mobile platform.

The marketing conspiracy theories are quite silly. As I've written here in a number of posts since the iPad2 presentation, Apple's biggest problem through out the year will be production capacity.

Planning and logistics is not my specialty, however I am quite aware of it's micro-problems becoming major headaches (mostly from print-production/packaging experience).

I just can't even comprehend this though in regards to Apple and their products. If you sit down for a second and think about it... the oncoming migraine is surely better than actually having to deal with the logistics first-hand.

And BTW: this is absolutely nothing in comparison to what we're going to see when iPhone5 and iOS 5 hit the scene in the summer.

In regards to the Enterprise/Business adoption that I'm personally involved in with Apple mobile devices here in Germany, I just wanted to note:

1. I've said before, and I will again: RIM is over by the end of the year; PlayBook will bomb seriously.
2. unless Google shows Chrome OS soon, they will also be left out of the biz sector, at least for quite a while.
3. MSFT is waiting for quad-core ARM chips to push a hybrid desktop/mobile experience for mobile... I think it's too late. Good news (for them?), is that they're in parallel, looking at becoming a serious iOS App developer.
4. No matter what hardware the assorted manufacturers pull together and put Android on, it will not sell even close to the volume (combined!) of the integrated iOS/Apple approach. Main reason from a small business point of view, is the easy development of biz-specific apps, that run on ALL iOS devices equally well. We're seeing 50% reduced IT development, training, and support costs, and expect that savings curve to go quite a bit higher even.
5. Due to the above, I know my clients aren't even looking at anything other than iOS devices, and as I have mentioned in many posts before, they are slowly but very deliberately, replacing Windows desktops/notebooks with Mac products... where they are also seeing large productivity gains and ROI. An overlooked part of the reason (enterprise/small biz adoption), why we continue to see Mac OS products outselling all the others quarter after quarter.
6. The Halo-effort perfectly orchestrated and defined. Probably a good 90% of all business people I know here, or have come into contact with at trade shows, have an iPhone. For the majority, it was the first Apple product they've ever owned.

Sorry this was a bit off-topic, but it DOES relate to our need here in Germany and Europe, that Apple respect their stated launch dates. Especially since, that while my biz/clients are small potatoes, my high-up "carrier" drinking buddies and contacts, incl. a few well placed consultants in health care, are depending on Apple to come through. To a man (one woman to be fair), we've been Apple's best marketing department. It would be a shame if our logistics get screwed because of theirs.

Whatever... we'll all just wait it out if it happens. How funny, considering where Apple was in the minds of biz-people just 4 short years ago: they weren't... "Apple?"...

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Wait. I'm confused by your response. There was nothing hysterical about my post.

Of course Apple know about scalpers. Why else would they limit purchases to two units per person?

I don't think that was genuine information. Was't it just economic speculation that the lead up to Christmas is generally a peak purchasing time and therefore a good time to launch a new product if you want quick market penetration?

I think Apple products are generally seen as a "destination" purchase by most consumers. It probably doesn't really matter when they get released because people save up and buy exactly what they want rather than make do with what they can afford. And they also have an interest in padding out their whole year with new releases to keep people engaged. A year between releases seems to be the sweet spot for those who want to upgrade every time. And it's also not too far between releases for folks who decide they want to skip a generation.

I don't have a business or marketing degree but I have a theory that Apple standardises their offerings partly so they can do something I call "Purchaser Polling". If factors like time of the year and time since last update are standardised Apple can actually quantify how much consumers value the new features in a product update just by looking at the sales figures (probably even more accurately than Q&A polling which measures opinions rather than behaviour).

Take for example the White Macbook and the base model Macbook Air. Isn't it curious that both products are priced at exactly the same price point in every single market - despite being released during May and October of 2010 respectively (when currency exchange rates were presumably very different)?

By offering two products with vastly different feature sets at exactly the same price Apple is posing every customer with the question: "Do you value form factor, aluminium finish, performance and pixel density (Macbook Air) more than you value storage capacity, legacy ports and access to CD/DVD media (Macbook)?"

I think Steve is keeping a close eye on the sales figures of those two products in particular. When the sales ratio reaches a certain critical point expect him to declare that mechanical, platter-based media, such as DVD's and Hard drives, are dead and solid state memory is the new hotness and standard in every mac.

-Apologies for going off on a tangent!

Interesting tangent, though.

Will Australia be one of the few markets to see a price drop for the iPad 2?

The Australian dollar is 15-20% stronger against the greenback than when the iPad 1 launched.



And the iPad 1 dropped a massive $180 in Australia following the iPad 2 announcement.

US $499 -> US $399
AUD $629 -> AUD $449

My hunch is that the Australian iPad 2 will be priced from $599.

It's a rounder figure than $629 but still leaves a conservative buffer should Apple be concerned about volatile changes to the exchange rate.

Of course the price drop could also be because there was a greater proportion of iPad 1 stock to clear out.

Of course Apple is aware of scalpers, but I don't think that they really care about them, because they're not doing anything to stop them.

The customers standing in line seem to know more about them than Apple does. There are numerous reports of huge numbers of Asians standing in line, being directed by a ring leader walking around with thousands of dollars in cash. I've read about that happening in New York and in San Francisco. And it's obviously happening in other places also. Some Russians have also been doing this in New York.

Maybe Apple should have made cash purchases illegal, like they did last time. No credit card, no iPad. And only 1 purchase per credit card, with the credit card going on file so it can't be used again. Then it would be harder for the scalpers to cheat Apple and screw other customers. And it would be fairer for every normal Apple customer that is not a cheat who is taking hours out of their schedule to stand in line.

Hopefully one of the scalpers walking around with thousands of dollars in their pocket will get robbed. That would be pretty funny and it would lead to more iPads for decent people.

I wouldn't have thought "very" poor but thanks for taking the time to let me know. I'll be sure to run my thoughts by you before posting next time.

If you think Apple is intentionally withholding supply of the iPad 2, try these steps:

1. Create a revolutionary idea.
2. Turn it into an amazing product that appeals to a wide range of people.
3. Find multiple component sources, arrange logistics with multiple suppliers, shippers, and distribution points, etc.
4. Sell it through thousands of locations.
5. Report back on how easy it is to keep up with demand.

Clearly Apple just needs to flip a switch and deliver more iPad 2s. There is no such thing as manufacturing capacities, logistics, component supply constraints, etc.

I am amazed that any company can deliver so many units of such a high build quality that uses such advanced technology in such a short amount of time. It's astounding.

Right now, shipping times online are FIVE weeks. So say Apple pushed back the intro a full month, and over the course of the weekend, the same people who have ordered online and waited in line bought up those four weeks' supply. They would be right back in the same position that they are in now - a lot (A LOT) of people with new iPads in hand, and a bunch of forum posters complaining that they didn't make enough and should have pushed back the launch date.

The fact is you never know what demand will be until you put them on sale. It doesn't benefit any consumer for Apple to NOT sell a product that they have a million of piling up - there are a lot of people out there who are happy to have their iPad now, even though the vocal crowds don't indicate that. The happy buyers are just that.

Ditto. Taking Friday morning off. Will be outside Apple store at _________ by 5AM (I'm an early rise so that's normal). Back to work by noon at the latest. Bit of a drive but happy.

Worry is like a rocking chair ... gives you something to do, but doesn't get you anywhere.
Don't fall for all this crap of limiting supply just to make you want more ... that is just somebody waiting in line that is frustration. Just something to say that has no substance. If you had any experience in manufacturing you would know that Apple is doing everything it can to make these beauties and get them into the hands of waiting customers. You make money selling products that people pay for ... not dangling them on a string to make them frustrated.
iPAD2 is a spectacular product and the competition wishes they had such a problem of delivery and desire.

THey were NOT forced to delay last year. They choose to. And instead shipped the stock earmarked for that release to US stores. THAT is why they had no stock for the international release.

My guess. They are standing firm on that stock and keeping it for the overseas launch come hell or high water on US complaints. After all, the folks that really want an ipad 2 will wait. Even if a couple of hundred folks like "give me now or I"m buying a Frakking Xoom and I'm never buying anything Apple ever again" (generally an empty threat and Apple knows it)

One thing that is very sketchy about the international launch date. There are no international Apple sites that say "Available March 25th" like the USA site said forthe March 11 launch date. Instead they have a "Get notified" button.

Doesn't this point to an indefinite launch date for the international launch?

The UK Apple site says "Coming 25 March". the Canadian site does too. I would hope Apple are taking notes from the US launch to ensure the international launches go smoothly.

Okay, I stand corrected - I checked abunch of countries yesterday, including Sweden and the UK, and both still had "Get notified" buttons.

Don't get me wrong, the sites still both say 'Notify me' and give no concrete details about availability, but they do state a March 25 release date.