Software Behind iPad Shipment Delay and iPad to Capture Major E-reader Market

Submitted by lalit on March 5, 2010 - 7:26pm.

It was believed that Apple would start shipping the new iPad by end of March, but the company announced today they would ship the iPad few days later on April 3. Recently, analyst Peter Misek speculated that hardware issues might cause delay in iPad launch. However, John Gruber of Daring Fireball says software and not hardware was behind the delay. He wrote on this blog:

My sources suggest that Misek is wrong. It was the software, not the hardware that took a week or two longer to finish than they’d hoped. Nothing extraordinary or unusual, just the usual hard-to-predict-timing of turning software that’s almost ready to ship into software that’s ready to ship. In the grand history of major OS release date slips, one week is pretty tame.

In other iPad related news, ChangeWave has published their latest research findings related to upcoming iPad launch. According to ChangeWave, even though Amazon Kindle has a major head start with 68 percent market share, iPad is poised to profoundly shake up the e-Reader market. The survey by ChangeWave shows that Apple iPad will capture 40 percent market share within 90 days of launch and Kindles market share will fall from today’s high of 68 percent to about 28 percent.

ChangeWave says, “In short, while the iPad launch is likely to strengthen overall e-Reader demand, the survey suggests Amazon and its competitors could well find themselves relegated to playing catch-up within just a few quarters if they don’t preemptively move quickly to upgrade their own e-readers.”