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It has been nine days since iPad 2 rolled out into stores across the U.S. Apple, Best Buy, Target, Walmart and some Sam's clubs all had iPad 2 on it's Friday night debut. But since the iPad 2 launch, the supply chain hasn't been filled, it's been all but depleted, and it's more than just about demand — somethings wrong.

For the ninth day, lines across America continue. Thousands of people are still spending tens of thousands of hours gathering during their much needed REM sleep time for a shot at finally being able to purchase the magical product. But instead of Apple being able to deliver a higher volume of iPads and time moves forward, it appears Apple's manufacturing capability is diminishing.

I have been personally involved with these lines for five-days. Each day, I return to my office empty handed. Last Saturday I bought into the Gene - "No Lines" - Munster's idea that lines for iPad 2 would be minimal. I bought wrong. I wound up being three people away from purchasing an iPad 2. On Saturday I was about 100 people down the line, shocked there would be massive lines on day two. Sunday, Monday and Tuesday our local stores received no iPads. Arriving at the mall at 8 AM on Wednesday left me about 30 people away from getting an iPad. Frustration was not only starting to mount, but it simply started getting ridiculous, as each gathering was only receiving 20 - 30 iPads each day... 

I decided to mix things a bit and get serious about this line-standing exercise. On Thursday I arrived at the the mall at 7 AM. Again, I was about the 50th person to arrive, and the gal in front of me received the last iPad. Seriously!? Friday I had out of town business to attend to, so Saturday AM my wife and I engaged in all-out line standing war. We each split up, surrounding two local Apple stores at 5:25 AM. Surely pre-6 AM would deliver us a guaranteed top-10 line status. But for the 5th straight day I guessed wrong. It appears everyone thought as we did, if not more so. Tents, chairs, heaters and blankets galore greeted us, resulting in our 30-ish in line position. Surely, we should get our hands on an iPad today.

• Nine days after launch
• 5:25 AM arrival
• Two stores staked out
• 30 or so line position
• Saturday: A day Apple would be most loaded for bear 

The result? The worst quantity of iPads thus far. My wife informed me the store she attended only had 10 iPads, while the store I chose to stake out, was "flush" with 16 units (yes, that's sarcasm) —  and people were allowed to purchase two each! Denied once more, on day nine...

At this point, Foxcnn should be ramped up to nearly full production capacity, but it appears something is going drastically wrong with this launch. This all begs the question: What's the issue?

• Japan's tragedy? Not likely - at least not yet for it to be effecting early builds. 
• Massive demand? A contributing factor, but even simple math reveals product delivery is not moving north, it's going south.
• Apple spacing the U.S. and international launch too close together? Apple mapped this roadmap out months ago, based on a myriad of production and logistical factors. They were not caught by surprise by their own planning.
• Production Issues? Likely.

If a production issue and/or issues has slowed manufacturing it acts as a multiplier effect, and until the process can be fixed and production ramped to full capacity, Apple's tight world-wide launch schedule is going to cause supply to be limited for several months. Throw in Japan's supply issues soon hitting Apple for a decent spell of time and iPad 2 is going to prove to be one of the most in-demand and elusive high-tech products ever launched by Apple. Let's just hope this doesn't convince those on the fense would-be buyers with going for less than competitive products - Xoom anyone?

If you have information as to what is taking place with Apple's lack of iPad 2 delivery, contact us.

2 Comments

1. TJ ~ March 24, 2011 16:06
   Yea there is something really fishy going on here. The fact that Apple is not speaking out as of yet makes me think there are some games being played or some issues they do not want folks to know about.
2. JE ~ March 29, 2011 18:08
   It is fishy I agree. Think that Apple is having serious manufacturing issues.

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