Question for the Salty Apple owners?

[Sowellca]

I've no way to confirm this, but I feel it's possible that the Japan earthquake/tsunami disaster may have caused disruptions in shipping for iPad 2. I ordered mine almost as soon as the iPad 2 went on sale online and then started reading incoming reports about the disaster shortly thereafter.

It almost seems like the extremely early orders made it out, and then I started hearing about weeks-long delays for others. Mine arrived within four days or so of placing my online order.

I realize they come from China, but perhaps Apple originally intended to ship via Japan also, and had to scramble to reroute. Not really sure. Of course, it would be in bad taste for them to blame shipping difficulties on such a terrible event, thus, perhaps, no explanation is best from their point of view.

As to the store stocks running low, I suppose demand must be quite large. Then again, perhaps unspoken shipping difficulties play a part.

 

[SporkLover]

I've no way to confirm this, but I feel it's possible that the Japan earthquake/tsunami disaster may have caused disruptions in shipping for iPad 2. I ordered mine almost as soon as the iPad 2 went on sale online and then started reading incoming reports about the disaster shortly thereafter.

It almost seems like the extremely early orders made it out, and then I started hearing about weeks-long delays for others. Mine arrived within four days or so of placing my online order.

I realize they come from China, but perhaps Apple originally intended to ship via Japan also, and had to scramble to reroute. Not really sure. Of course, it would be in bad taste for them to blame shipping difficulties on such a terrible event, thus, perhaps, no explanation is best from their point of view.

As to the store stocks running low, I suppose demand must be quite large. Then again, perhaps unspoken shipping difficulties play a part.

On the apple forums, some folks have said that the geniuses and AppleCare folks have said the production lines have been held up due the qc issues with light leakage. The new rumored start ship date is 21 April.

 

[tzimisce]

I realize they come from China, but perhaps Apple originally intended to ship via Japan also, and had to scramble to reroute. Not really sure.

Shenzhen is adjacent to the Hong Kong SAR, i.e. if you were crossing the border from China to HK, you'd be crossing over from Shenzhen. From there you can go overland directly to Lantau Island, where the Hong Kong International Airport (along with couriers and freight companies) is located.

Thus, in terms of economy and efficiency, everything from Shenzhen can easily go overland to HKIA, where it gets dispatched to the respective destination cities (one of the considerations to having the factory in Shenzhen, I'm sure.) There's no reason why the cargo would have to make another stop in Japan.

As for Chengdu, it's located roughly right in the middle of China in Szechuan province. Again, there's no business sense nor would it be cost-effective to make an intermediate stop in Japan.

 

[col.bris]

They do not ship via Japan. Please read my earlier post demand out paces supply give it time and all will be fine.

 

[Broseph]

My point is why didn't they have pre-orders? Then lines would have been well. smaller.


But thanks for letting me vent, after my third visit to the apple store only to stand around with others of my elk planning on ways to get the IPAD 2.

Pre-orders would have been the same as online ordering. The shipping times for pre-orders would have quickly been extended to many weeks, and impatient people would still go stand in lines hoping to get one sooner.

There's really no easy way around high demand and limited supply.

I strongly disagree. If Apple had allowed pre-orders sooner, they would have had a better idea of what demand was. This shortage is not entirely an accident by any stretch. It is naive to think otherwise. Apple is feeding off the publicity. It loves it.

My theory is that Apple had already wanted supplies to be short--and the unpredictable tragedy in Japan only made things worse, pushing a minor update, second gen product to being "sold out" across the board weeks after its launch. Waits are even longer than Apple wanted them to be. (And that's saying something)

No Steve Jobs, the iPad 2 isn't EVERYWHERE in March.

 

[DontUnderstandMyIpad]

I strongly disagree. If Apple had allowed pre-orders sooner, they would have had a better idea of what demand was. This shortage is not entirely an accident by any stretch. It is naive to think otherwise. Apple is feeding off the publicity. It loves it.

Even if Apple had allowed pre-orders would it not have changed the situation, because the production capacity is limited. the only difference would have been that much less iPads would have been sold through apple stores. Would you feel more annoyed for having a month wait for an online order, or if you don't receive on after waiting 5h in line?

And no, Apple can't just start producing the iPad weeks sooner, because they need the time for the development, quality insurance, even now do many screens have light bleeding issues.

 

[majura]

I'm sour at not getting an iPad2 Friday, but I don't blame Apple entirely.

I am annoyed at the 5pm release date. Sure this suited many since it would be easier to take a half day off work and line up in the afternoon. I would have happily camped out overnight but 5pm last Friday just diddn't work out - I had to travel for a family commitment at 6pm, and there was just no way it could work out logistically.

What I don't like so much is the lack of information that so many resellers in my city diddn't get. Basically it was 'no news = bad news' although the 4 that I checked with said they received notifications from Apple saying that the iPad would be available to sell on the 25th, although only 2 resellers in the entire city actually got the stock (there's no Apple store here). Supplies were so scarce that not even other stores of the same chain got stock. Obviously they were edging for a queue and got one 400 strong.

The rumour is that no one in the EU will be getting stock for at least 2 weeks, but I'm still hoping that maybe, just maybe my local reseller get stock early enough so that I can walk in and pick it up (have a 'reservation') and cancel my online order.

To be honest though, I do understand Apple's sales/marketing technique and the simple fact of the matter is- are we going to go buy a Xoom? Also, I'd rather wait 2 weeks longer for a screen that doesn't bleed as opposed to having to take it back and deal with all that hassle.

 

[gentlefury]

I think it's because the iPad 2 was really nothing new. Just new stock of iPads. No reason to get one if you already have an iPad.

 

[Broseph]

I strongly disagree. If Apple had allowed pre-orders sooner, they would have had a better idea of what demand was. This shortage is not entirely an accident by any stretch. It is naive to think otherwise. Apple is feeding off the publicity. It loves it.

Even if Apple had allowed pre-orders would it not have changed the situation, because the production capacity is limited. the only difference would have been that much less iPads would have been sold through apple stores. Would you feel more annoyed for having a month wait for an online order, or if you don't receive on after waiting 5h in line?

And no, Apple can't just start producing the iPad weeks sooner, because they need the time for the development, quality insurance, even now do many screens have light bleeding issues.

My point is that if Apple had announced the iPad 2 sooner, they could have anticipated the increased demand and thus their production. Apple has never said their factories are working at full capacity. Why should they? The longer iPad2's are a hot item the more publicity they get.

Can you think of another product that is making front page news? The shortages we are seeing are only typical of brand new Gaming Systems in holiday seasons. This shouldn't be happening for a minor update in March. They've had MORE than a year to prepare and manufacture a new version.

This makes Apple either totally inept or genius. I tend to lean toward the latter. Supplies are limited, at least partially on purpose.

 

[SporkLover]

I strongly disagree. If Apple had allowed pre-orders sooner, they would have had a better idea of what demand was. This shortage is not entirely an accident by any stretch. It is naive to think otherwise. Apple is feeding off the publicity. It loves it.

Even if Apple had allowed pre-orders would it not have changed the situation, because the production capacity is limited. the only difference would have been that much less iPads would have been sold through apple stores. Would you feel more annoyed for having a month wait for an online order, or if you don't receive on after waiting 5h in line?

And no, Apple can't just start producing the iPad weeks sooner, because they need the time for the development, quality insurance, even now do many screens have light bleeding issues.

My point is that if Apple had announced the iPad 2 sooner, they could have anticipated the increased demand and thus their production. Apple has never said their factories are working at full capacity. Why should they? The longer iPad2's are a hot item the more publicity they get.

Can you think of another product that is making front page news? The shortages we are seeing are only typical of brand new Gaming Systems in holiday seasons. This shouldn't be happening for a minor update in March. They've had MORE than a year to prepare and manufacture a new version.

This makes Apple either totally inept or genius. I tend to lean toward the latter. Supplies are limited, at least partially on purpose.

This is where supply chain management kicks in. Consumers are not going to continue to buy iPad 2 at the velocity they are now. Why would they put them in a position of having too much capacity in the future to meet a surge now? Those inefficiencies can ultimately drive up cost for the consumer.

 

[Tarkio]

I think it's because the iPad 2 was really nothing new. Just new stock of iPads. No reason to get one if you already have an iPad.

I had an iPad, sold it and bought an iPad2. 30% of iPad 2 buyers had the previous model too.

I can do many new things.

 

[madhatter61]

Does apple alway make it so darn hard to get their product?
I mean why didn't they allow folks to make online order two weeks early. Then they would have ample supplies to meet the demand for this product.
Happy customer make repeat customers.
Some say they wanted to have this demand because it looks good cheep advertising . I don't agree! Wouldn't it have been better to have peoples money sign seals and then (almost)delivered.

Wouldn't having be better to have the ipad 2's in peoples hands it would advertise itself.

This waiting and calling around is a PITA.

Also whats with the rumors of IPAD 3 in September when some of us will still be waiting for apple to deliver the IPAD 2s.

I chose not to stand in lines ... waited for the first week demand to pass. Went into BestBuy to ask some questions ... had no intent to buy ... asked the key question ... got any in stock ... surprise they did ... voila ... no waiting in lines, no frustration in searching around. My first insight to build volume is in the 3 million per month, which won't take long to keep the pipelines replenished.

No one knows what iPad3 is, let alone when it will be available. Everyone wants to be a psychic and be the first to say, I told you so. I don't know anyone that smart with that kind of info. If you deal in facts you will be less likely to be disappointed.

 

[iPadCharlie]

Can you think of another product that is making front page news?

This makes Apple either totally inept or genius. I tend to lean toward the latter. Supplies are limited, at least partially on purpose.

A company like Apple can afford to hire the best engineering and marketing people in the world... and they do! I promise you, NOTHING happens at One Infinite Loop by accident.

 

[tzimisce]

I strongly disagree. If Apple had allowed pre-orders sooner, they would have had a better idea of what demand was. This shortage is not entirely an accident by any stretch. It is naive to think otherwise. Apple is feeding off the publicity. It loves it.

The fallacy in the premise that Apple allowed the shortfall in order to "create publicity" is that given the momentum and hype of their brand and product, they would have already received the publicity around the product launch anyway, whether or not it was sold out. In fact, it would have been even better publicity if Apple could meet everyone's demand.

Also, as a business, I'd rather have people give me their money NOW and ship product like mad, than to purposely withhold it for weeks and risk people buying elsewhere (e.g. second-hand, in which the business gets nothing) or changing their minds.

Of course, if anyone has actual evidence that Apple are deliberately withholding production just to make buyers unhappy for the sake of publicity, I'm happy to hear it.

 

[hoshnasi]

My point is that if Apple had announced the iPad 2 sooner, they could have anticipated the increased demand and thus their production....

Just so I understand, your point is that Apple should of announced the product then released it much later to *determine* demand? You do conceed that the people on forums would be complaining that "Apple is sitting on the iPad too long."

Further, how determine demand for a product that has not been released. Sure you can estimate (and no doubt Apple did). However real demand and real manufacturing bottlenecks make and break a company. Apple is not new to this kind of thing. One can make a strong assumption is that what they are doing is as close as possible to weighing production to profit margin to consumer happiness.

Sure, alot of consumers are pissed, but I would bet that those same consumers by and large would NEVER decide on skipping the iPad in favor of another companies product.