New iPad: Apple Store Closes Online Pre-orders – Shipping Pushed Back to April

[Update]

Yesterday we told you how pre-orders for Apple’s New iPad have been postponed due to the incredible demand for the HD gadget which was due to arrive little over two weeks after its announcement, with shipping beginning on March 16th in the U.K and U.S. Now it’s been noted that the date for pre-order deliveries has been pushed back by 2-3 weeks. Meaning the New iPad won’t actually arrive until early April.

We’re still in the understanding that high street retailers will be receiving their stocks on Friday as planned, but if you’re reading this on your iPad 2 while waiting in line outside of your local Apple Store, the Gadget Helpline will keep on top of the latest changes to this story to help you prevent any disappointments!

[Originally Published 11/03/2012]

Pre-order demand for the “new” iPad has been so high since the Apple tablet was announced this past Wednesday that UK stocks for both Black and White variants through the official online store have now been halted. Meaning the only way you’ll be able to grab the HD slab for the time being is to get in line on Friday 16th of March – that’s the day the gadget known only as “iPad” hits the highstreet in Apple Store across the country. But if online pre-orders are anything to go by, as expected, the tablet won’t hang around for long, especially with queues already reported to be forming outside the shops worldwide!


Potential US buyers are also disappointed this weekend as the US branch of the Apple online store has also closed the pre-sale process early with stocks running dry after just 4 days. The faithful flocked to own the latest in high-definition portable tablet computing hardware, with 9.7″ 2048 x 1536 pixel resolution, A5X processor delivering quad-core equivalent graphics, a camera boost to 5-megapixels and the inclusion of voice assistant software Siri – not an iPad 3, but a numberless model – simply called iPad. A statement in true Apple fashion, and it’s believed the next smartphone in the Apple gadget line-up will also follow suit, becoming known as “iPhone”.

If you want a piece of the Apple owners club, but aren’t too fussed which model iPad you have as your arm-candy, you can pick up quite the bargain on last season’s iPad 2 in 16GB version. With selected retailers slashing prices by up to £100 on both the Wi-Fi only and Wi-Fi and 3G models. Strangely the Apple Store no longer lists the 32GB or 64GB model iPad 2, leading us to believe these models may have now been discontinued through the offical sources. So look out for bargains on any available stock of the larger RAM versions!

Check out the Gadget Helpline’s New iPad vs iPad 2 Specification Showdown feature – Here.

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