Apple said yesterday it was delaying the worldwide release of the iPad for a month because of heavy US demand.
“Faced with this surprisingly strong US demand, we have made the difficult decision to postpone the international launch of iPad by one month, until the end of May,” Apple said in a statement.
“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,” the Cupertino, California-based company said.
“We will announce international pricing and begin taking online pre-orders on Monday, May 10,” Apple said. “We know that many international customers waiting to buy an iPad will be disappointed by this news, but we hope they will be pleased to learn the reason — the iPad is a runaway success in the US thus far.”
The new tablet computer from Apple went on sale in the US on April 3.
Separately, the name “iPad” is already registered in Brazil to denote a South Korean-made defibrillator used in hospitals.
The Brazilian company that sells the heart-starting iPads, Transform Tecnologia de Ponta, based in Sao Paulo, told reporters on Monday that it has been selling the units for more than two years and registered the name with Brazil’s National Industrial Property Institute (INPI) last year.
“No one has been in contact with us about the iPad name,” the company’s sales chief Alathea Silva said.
She said a Brazilian law firm was working to protect brand names sold by her firm, but added that the iPad issue would probably be handled by the South Korean company which makes the defibrillator, CU Medical Systems Inc.
The Web site of CU Medical Systems shows the i-PAD NF1200 (www.cu911.com/eng/pro/sub_01_01.php), calling it a “semi-automated external defibrillator” that gives voice prompts to users.
The cardiac-corrective function is apparently beyond the capabilities of Apple’s iPad, despite Apple CEO Steve Jobs calling his device a “truly magical” product.
A Brazilian newspaper, Folha de Sao Paulo, said Apple was trying to register the iPad name with Brazil’s INPI through a representative company calling itself IP Application Development.
That front company has lodged a request to have the name transferred from the Brazilian company by the end of next month.
If the bid fails, the newspaper said Apple would likely have to buy the iPad name.
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