Euro iPad launch delayed to late May

Apple has had to delay the European and international launch of the iPad to late May.

The reason, the fruity company said, was "surprisingly strong US demand", which saw over 500,000 iPads fly off shelves in one week, therefore not leaving enough for everybody else.

Greedy.

Pre-orders for European (international) iPads will be taken from Monday, 10th May. We'll find out the localised prices then, too.

"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 as more people see and touch an iPad. We have also taken a large number of pre-orders for iPad 3G models for delivery by the end of April," said Apple.

"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."

"We will announce international pricing and begin taking online pre-orders on Monday, May 10," the company added. "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 iPad launched at the beginning of April in the US. Apple boss Steve Jobs reckons the device is "a game-changer". Wi-Fi models start from $499 and scale up to $829 for the Wi-Fi + 3G model with 64GB storage.