As I’ve made it clear before, I’ll ensure to say it once again to preface this post. I am a Microsoft MVP and 80% or more of my day involves Microsoft technologies. Therefore I know them quite well (or at least I hope and think so) and I know they have their fair share of problems. The community try to fix them, we are aware of them and we don’t admit to being perfect. Now, that said, let’s look at Sleeping Beauty’s (Apple) latest incarnation.
The iPad was hailed with great success in the US when it launched. Heck, they sold 300,000 units on launch day…great, right? (we won’t compare that to the Windows 7 launch 
At any rate, I digress. Today they reference this “launch success” and have decided to put more of a global launch on hold for now…
Now, the cynic in me says, is this really due to it’s success? I think not, and here’s why…
Anyone who is in the IT business will tell you that if you make too many units (let’s say 1,000,000) over time they’ll sell. They might not sell like you wanted them to initially, but they’ll sell. If Microsoft would have only had 300,000 copies of Windows 7 DVD’s available on launch day would the fact that “it’s popular” have flown with the consumer base? No.
Did Apple run out of iPods or have they ever run out of iPods when they launch them? No. Did they have almost sufficient demand for the iPhone, yep. Have they ever been short of Mac Books or Mac Book Pros on launch days? Nope…
OK, so success motives over, let’s look at what really Apple’s PR is trying to do. This extra month (at present) that they’re blaming the success on, actually let’s them figure out why the iPad didn’t work on launch day in the first place. What do I mean? Let’s take a look at Apple’s support forum. Riddled with wireless problems. Let’s look at one the major critics of IT, TechCrunch and SlashGear, all reporting wireless issues awry. Let’s try and Bing “ipad wireless”. Does it come back with the Apple site and the fact the iPad has wireless? No, it comes back with loads of errors and “fixes” for functionality that should work out of box, should it not?
Again, I’m not trying to say Microsoft is perfect or that Apple is rubbish (I’ll admit, I’ve got a Mac Book Pro and I really like it and I have an Apple TV too), however what I am saying is that someone in the PR department in Apple has concocted a great idea to try and cover up what really isn’t a supply problem. This supply problem is actually a development cycle wherein we’ll see a new rev of the firmware between the US release and the overseas launch…Mark my words.
