South Korea’s top two telecoms operators SK Telecom and KT Corp have both suspended the online sale of the iPad tablet due to tight supplies less than a week after they launched the sale, according to a Reuters report.
Without revealing sales figures, SK Telecom said in a posting on its website:
“Our iPad 2 inventory has been depleted and we apologize for failing to provide enough supplies due to the product’s global supply shortages.”
iPad 2s in the Apple Online Store Korea, however, continue to ship in an estimated 1-2 weeks, but without any form of subsidies from the operators.
Worldwide, Apple sold just under 5 million iPads in Q1 2011, around a million shy from its expected 6 million units. The transition to a new model and the Japanese supply chain tangles are said to have triggered the shortages of critical components.
It seems like the demand for iPad 2s remain strong in South Korea even after the country’s telecom regulator has announced its plans for an Apple probe to determine whether the company’s collection of location data from iPhone and iPad devices violates privacy rules.
Apple launched the new version of iPad in several Asian countries including Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore and eight others last week after it went on sale in the U.S. market in March.
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