September release date for iPad in Ireland?


1 Jul 2010

It is very likely that Apple will not be releasing the iPad for sale in Ireland by the end of July with a more likely date of some time in September or even October, says a source close to the situation.

Talking to Siliconrepublic, a source familiar with Apple’s relationship with suppliers here in Ireland said that Ireland, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Austria and Belgium will all have to wait quite a bit longer than intended to get their hands on an iPad.

The initial July target mentioned in the official Apple release has still not been set to an exact day and there is talk of supply issues to these countries, said the source.

He added that there was “so much difficulty” in manufacturing and shipping enough of the tablet devices to fulfil orders that it could even be a November launch for Ireland as a worst-case scenario.

This shortage, compounded by higher demand than previously expected, was already the reason for the delay in the international launch until 28 May.

“Although we have delivered more than 500,000 iPads during its first week, demand is far higher than we predicted and will likely continue to exceed our supply over the next several weeks as more people see and touch an iPad,” Apple said in a statement at the time.

“We have also taken a large number of pre-orders for iPad 3G models for delivery by the end of April.”