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Apple Postpones IPad’s Debut Outside U.S. to Late May (Update2)
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By Ville Heiskanen
April 14 (Bloomberg) -- Apple Inc. said demand for its iPad tablet computer is “far higher” than it expected, prompting the company to delay the device’s introduction outside the U.S. by a month.
The company shipped more than 500,000 iPads during the first week and expects demand to exceed its supply for the next several weeks, according to a statement today. Apple postponed the device’s international debut until the end of May.
Initial sales signal Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs may be succeeding in building a new product group at Apple between smartphones and laptop computers. The delay outside the U.S. may not hurt Apple because there aren’t any competing products consumers can buy, said Charlie Wolf, an analyst at Needham & Co. in New York.
“You should never underestimate how Steve Jobs sees where the computing market is going,” said Wolf, who recommends buying the stock and owns it himself. “It may be a modest disappointment for Europe and the other countries, but it’s in no way going to damage iPad sales.”
Wolf had forecast sales of as many as 300,000 iPads for the first weekend and 1.25 million for the quarter ending in June.
Apple, based in Cupertino, California, rose $2.42, or 1 percent, to $244.85 at 9:44 a.m. New York time in Nasdaq Stock Market trading. It has more than doubled in the past year.
International Sales
The iPad went on sale April 3 in the U.S. and drew crowds to stores across the country, rivaling the frenzy seen when the iPhone was introduced in 2007. Apple said it sold more than 300,000 iPads on the first day.
Apple is betting the device, which starts at $499, is enticing enough that consumers are willing to pay a premium over low-cost notebooks. Rivals such as Microsoft Corp. have failed to turn tablet computers into popular consumer devices.
The international delay means consumers outside the U.S. may need to keep paying extra to buy the iPad from friends and entrepreneurs who brought them from the U.S. IPads have fetched 100,000 rupees ($2,250) in India and one purchaser in the U.K. paid $5,500, more than 10 times the U.S. asking price, according to online auctioneer EBay Inc.
“There’s nothing on the market like it, and there won’t be for months,” Wolf said. “People are not going to go out and buy a competing product because there’s no competing product.”
Apple has started selling three of the six iPad versions it plans to offer, with first buyers getting models that connect to the Web via Wi-Fi. IPads that run on so-called third-generation mobile-phone networks will go on sale later this month in the U.S. Apple said today it has taken a “large number” of pre- orders for the 3G models.
Apple said it will announce international pricing and begin taking online preorders on May 10.
To contact the reporter on this story: Ville Heiskanen in New York at [email protected]
Last Updated: April 14, 2010 09:51 EDT
Share Business ExchangeTwitterFacebook| Email | Print | A A A
By Ville Heiskanen
April 14 (Bloomberg) -- Apple Inc. said demand for its iPad tablet computer is “far higher” than it expected, prompting the company to delay the device’s introduction outside the U.S. by a month.
The company shipped more than 500,000 iPads during the first week and expects demand to exceed its supply for the next several weeks, according to a statement today. Apple postponed the device’s international debut until the end of May.
Initial sales signal Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs may be succeeding in building a new product group at Apple between smartphones and laptop computers. The delay outside the U.S. may not hurt Apple because there aren’t any competing products consumers can buy, said Charlie Wolf, an analyst at Needham & Co. in New York.
“You should never underestimate how Steve Jobs sees where the computing market is going,” said Wolf, who recommends buying the stock and owns it himself. “It may be a modest disappointment for Europe and the other countries, but it’s in no way going to damage iPad sales.”
Wolf had forecast sales of as many as 300,000 iPads for the first weekend and 1.25 million for the quarter ending in June.
Apple, based in Cupertino, California, rose $2.42, or 1 percent, to $244.85 at 9:44 a.m. New York time in Nasdaq Stock Market trading. It has more than doubled in the past year.
International Sales
The iPad went on sale April 3 in the U.S. and drew crowds to stores across the country, rivaling the frenzy seen when the iPhone was introduced in 2007. Apple said it sold more than 300,000 iPads on the first day.
Apple is betting the device, which starts at $499, is enticing enough that consumers are willing to pay a premium over low-cost notebooks. Rivals such as Microsoft Corp. have failed to turn tablet computers into popular consumer devices.
The international delay means consumers outside the U.S. may need to keep paying extra to buy the iPad from friends and entrepreneurs who brought them from the U.S. IPads have fetched 100,000 rupees ($2,250) in India and one purchaser in the U.K. paid $5,500, more than 10 times the U.S. asking price, according to online auctioneer EBay Inc.
“There’s nothing on the market like it, and there won’t be for months,” Wolf said. “People are not going to go out and buy a competing product because there’s no competing product.”
Apple has started selling three of the six iPad versions it plans to offer, with first buyers getting models that connect to the Web via Wi-Fi. IPads that run on so-called third-generation mobile-phone networks will go on sale later this month in the U.S. Apple said today it has taken a “large number” of pre- orders for the 3G models.
Apple said it will announce international pricing and begin taking online preorders on May 10.
To contact the reporter on this story: Ville Heiskanen in New York at [email protected]
Last Updated: April 14, 2010 09:51 EDT
