Apple appears to either be caught napping or a victim of their own success, with the company announcing that the iPad’s availability outside of the US will be postponed by another month till the end of May.

This comes as a rather big blow to UK Apple fans – who will now need to wait till May 10th just to be able to pre-order the device. International customers have had no word on Apples pricing plans as yet, despite the US receiving the iPad on April the 3rd.

The reason given for the delay?

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(TM). We have also taken a large number of pre-orders for iPad 3G models for delivery by the end of April. 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. 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.

AppleInsider reports one Swiss Apple fan has written an email of complaint straight to Steve Jobs regarding the botched international launch of the iPad.

In his email, Mr Shadwell said:

Dear Mr Jobs
On behalf of the international community of Apple consumers I would like to protest at the way Apple is apparently leaving us out in the cold with the Apple iPad product.We have been fed either misinformation or no information at all and it is starting to cast doubt over Apple’s intents, at least it is to me.

I live in Switzerland and as yet we have no idea what the Apple iPad will cost here, if it is anything like the international pricing we have been used to to date on other Apple products, then it will certainly not be an “unbelievable price” as stated in your marketing.

If the delays and lack of pricing information is due to Apple doing it’s level best, to make sure that we are not being ripped off, then I applaud that work. However, as previously mentioned, I am doubting this.

Twice to my knowledge you have falsely stated international availability of the iPad and while I do not believe this is any fault of your own, I can imagine that you are not happy being shown as deliberately pulling the wool over the rest of the worlds eyes.

This is what you said at the iPhone OS4.0 announcement11:10AM – Q: Will iPad’s success impact its international launch?

Steve: No, we said we’re launching internationally later in April, and we’re launching later in April.

Please can you clarify what is happening and why it has taken so long for information to be released to the international community.

May I suggest the following: Make it easier for us to purchase your products directly from the USA online Apple store. Many of us would be happy to do so and pay extra for local Applecare.

I look forward to your response.

Best regards

Paul J Shadwell

Shadwell than received a reply:

“deliberately pulling the wool over the rest of the worlds eyes”

Are you nuts? We are doing the best we can. We need enough units to have a responsible and great launch.

Some have suggested this is part of Apple’s marketing ploy, in order to build additional demand for the device in the rest of the world. It does seem rather biased towards the US market. Demand has outstripped Apple’s own initial estimate of around 100,000 devices. It’s believed that the delay may alos have come about due to Apple having difficulty increasing production numbers of the iPad.

In slightly better news, carriers are beginning to confirm their offering of the iPad 3G in time for the May release. Pricing is expected to be announced on May 10th when the pre-orders go live. O2, Vodafone and Orange have all confirmed they will be offering Apple iPad 3G pricing plans on all models. It is not clear whether these 3G models will be subsidized by the networks, a practice common in the UK where a mobile phone is offered a much discounted (or even free) cost in exchange for the user agreeing on a lengthy contract with the company.