Hands up anyone who actually believes that Apple completely screwed up it’s supply chain, and thus was forced to reluctantly delay iPad shipments to Europe?
Yeah… it’s precisely what I’d have done. It’s a winning strategy. An absolute winning strategy, whether the company truly did screw things up or not. You really do have to admire them.
They know if you actually want an iPad right now, you’ll order it from the States. Of course they do. But the fact that they’ve delayed it has made Twitterlines (“Twitter-headlines”) all afternoon resulting in a ton of coverage. Even The London Telegraph saw fit to announce the delay on the top of their site, ‘above the fold’.
At the same time, of course, behind the scenes this morning, frantic phone calls and emails were zipping between Apple’s Mission Control and Vodafone, o2 and Orange. Apple famously approve everything to do with the mobile operator’s marketing and public relations announcements and they strictly enforce it. Which is why, this afternoon, I got this from Vodafone:
Vodafone today announced that it will offer dedicated iPad price plans for all models from the end of May in Australia, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK.
The iPad lets users browse the web, read and send email, enjoy and share photos, watch HD videos, listen to music, play games, read ebooks and much more, all using iPad’s revolutionary Multi-Touch user interface.
For more information about iPad please visit www.apple.com/ipad.
And this from o2:
O2 today announced that it will offer dedicated iPad price plans for all models from the end of May in the UK.
The iPad lets users browse the web, read and send email, enjoy and share photos, watch HD videos, listen to music, play games, read ebooks and much more, all using iPad’s revolutionary Multi-Touch user interface.
For more information about iPad please visit www.apple.com/ipad.
I shit ye not. Even the apostrophe in the second paragraph is the same style indicating it’s been cut’n’pasted from Apple approved master release.
What about Orange? What did they have to say? Well, curiously, it was exactly the same…
Orange today announced that it will offer dedicated iPad price plans for all models from the end of May (in France, UK, Spain and Switzerland).
The iPad lets users browse the web, read and send email, enjoy and share photos, watch HD videos, listen to music, play games, read ebooks and much more, all using iPad’s revolutionary Multi-Touch user interface.
For more information about iPad please visit www.apple.com/ipad.
This kind of stage management is simply phenomenal to witness.
So, in case you didn’t already know: The iPad UK/European launch is delayed. And those operators will be offering ‘price plans’ for the iPad.
What kind of price plans? That information isn’t available at this time.
How much will the price plans be? That information isn’t available at this time.
What price will the iPad be in the UK? That information isn’t available at this time.
This does however mean that if you’re a mobile developer, you’ve got another 30 odd days worth of development time before the Great Unwashed gets hold of the iPads here in the UK.