Yep, the iPad Will Be Delayed — But Only a Few Days

Apple’s iPad tablet will go on sale a few days later than originally announced — a fact that is attracting attention. The company announced Friday that the Wi-Fi version will be released for sale on April 3 in the U.S. At the iPad announcement in January, the Cupertino, Calif.-based company said the product would ship in late March.

There have been rumors that the sale date was pushed back to accommodate an unspecified production problem. The 3G version goes on sale in late April, and preordering for either model in the U.S. begins in a week.

Reshaping the Landscape?

For countries outside the U.S. in the first rollout — Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom — both versions will ship in late April.

“Oh, no!” said Current Analysis Avi Greengart in mock horror at the sale date slipping by a few days. He added, “if people are horrified by a delay of a few days, interest is obviously pretty high.”

The question is whether that level of interest will reshape the landscape of Apple’s competitors, just as Apple legendarily did with the release of the Mac, the iPod, and the iPhone. That landscape currently includes the emerging categories of netbooks, e-readers, and other tablet computers, with a flurry of product announcements and releases in the last few months as competitors try to position themselves vis-a-vis Apple.

The iPad, with a 9.7-inch LCD touchscreen, is optimized for movies, games, books, web browsing, and other media. There’s a built-in calendar and address book, access to iTunes, a built-in e-mail client, and an on-screen QWERTY keyboard. There is also a new iPad Keyboard Dock so the user can employ a regular keyboard.

‘High Hopes’

Greengart said he has “high hopes” for iPad sales, and he envisioned that “future versions will sell even better” once…

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