iPad 2 availability question

Help me understand Apple's reasoning here.

1. Apple IiPad 2 availability is poor. Apple's website indicates 4-5 week lead-time today. BB has none, Apple stores in metro areas have none. Some report a few coming in per week, and getting taken by the first couple of people people waiting in line before the store opening. Most of those waiting in line are reporting that they go away repeatedly empty handed.

2. Because of Japan's problems, it's been reported that some component availability will result in continued shortages of manufacturing output for the devices by the Chinese subcontractor. Availability is only going to get worse, before it gets better.

3. Apple pre-planned, before demand spiked and Japan's difficulties, holding off introducing the iPad 2 worldwide.

So my question is.... Why is Apple opening up worldwide distribution on this Friday March 25?

I can see why they would want to open it up ASAP..."Strike while the fire is hot", so to speak. But how can that reasoning be effective when supply is already so poor,, getting worse, that it can only serve to bring US availability to a virtual nightmare.

I am not wanting one right away. I just fail to see the logic and am curious. Could Apple be instead throttling availability to create the lines and wait for just publicity, and the shortages are actually intentional?

 

The 4-5 week lead-time is only an (over) estimate and they usually ship much sooner. For example, when I ordered my 4 ipad2s on 3/12, the estimated time was 3-4 weeks. 11 days later (today) I got a notification today that 2 of the ipad2s were already shipped.

As for shortages go, keep in mind that Apple operates multi-nationally. Why should Apple deny sales of their ipads to foreign countries when they can sell the same amount of ipad2s and keep other countries happy too? I'm sure many apple fans in foreign countries are already annoyed that the US always gets their Apple products before anyone else. Delaying the worldwide distribution date will probably cause worse publicity for the Apple image worldwide.

 

They have to serve all the markets they are in. And the shortages are not real shortages in my opinion they are artificial. If you keep people lining up outside the stores then your demand will increase too.

Overall this is a great way to increase peoples demands and make some serious sales.

 

Opening up sales internationally might help mitigate any gray market problem, at least to the extent that it's cheaper for a reseller to turn over inventory within each country than import it from the US (which might not necessarily be true considering international pricing and the limited # of Apple stores overseas).