Shipping times for Apple’s iPad shrank to 24 hours over the weekend, as first noticed by AppleInsider. The Apple Store is currently showing shipping times for all six models of iPad to be “Within 24hrs.” Wait times for the iPad were as long as a week for most of August, and as recently as last week, shipping times were still showing multi-day waits.
The question, of course, is whether decreased shipping times comes from decreased demand, increased supply, or some combination of both. That’s likely to be the question focused on by analysts in the coming days as news of the decrease percolates.
That said, Apple’s track history for popular new devices is to even out the delta between supply and demand sooner, rather than later, and with the iPad having been released April 23rd, more than three months ago, it shouldn’t be too surprising that the company has narrowed its shipping times.
Apple Store screenshot from August 30th, 2010