Apple now says it won't launch the iPad internationally until May, citing major U.S. demand as the primary reason for the one-month delay.
"Although we have delivered more than 500,000 iPads during its first week, demand is far higher than we predicted and will likely continue to exceed our supply over the next several weeks as more people see and touch an iPad," the company says in a statement.
Continues Apple: "We have also taken a large number of pre-orders for iPad 3G models for delivery by the end of April."
"Faced with this surprisingly strong U.S. demand, we have made the difficult decision to postpone the international launch of iPad by one month, until the end of May," the statement concludes.
Apple has yet to reveal international launch prices for the device, which retailed at $499 when the wi-fi-only version hit shelves in the U.S. on April 3 -- and by April 8, it had sold 450,000 units.
On that date, at an event in Cupertino, Apple CEO Steve Jobs revealed demand was already outpacing supply, stating "
we can't make enough of them yet."
