UK iPad launch delay – a few conspiracy theories

So we Brits are going to have to wait another month (at least) before we get to unpack our shiny new iPads.

Here’s why we shouldn’t be surprised

1 Apple has delayed UK launches before – The last one I remember is the Apple iPod mini. Apple got swamped by demand for the player in the US and had none left for the rest of the world. It did launch a few months behind schedule in the UK in rather limited numbers.

2 Demand was always going to outstrip supply – At its launch the iPad could have gone either way. There was a lot of negative press and the markets weren’t massively impressed. A hardcore of fan boys and girls were always going to buy the device, but it must have made it hard for Apple to work out how many iPads to manufacture. As time has gone by the demand on both sides of the Atlantic seems have to risen dramatically, great news for Apple, but not good for fanboy/girl Brits. Apple hasn’t really had a product that has been in such demand for a while now. The appeal of the iPhone was limited as when it launched in the UK only one network – O2 – had it

3 Delaying the launch will only increase demand – So it is all marketing ploy designed to whip the rest of the world into an iPad frenzy! I don’t think that this is the main reason why the iPad has been delayed, but keeping the product back a few extra weeks is probably going to make the iPad even more desirable.

4 Apple still doesn’t know how much to charge for the UK iPads – Note that Apple will announce the price of the iPad a couple of days after the UK election. At the moment it looks like a hung parliament or a Labour win. If it is the former expect the pound to go into freefall against the dollar making it very difficult for Apple to set iPad prices in the UK with the likelihood that none of us could afford one.

5 Steve Jobs has just bought loads of shares in eBay – Well the price of iPads has just rocketed.