Here is my theory. -- and by the way, hello everyone, long-time viewer, first-time poster -- The release date will be on the 24th. Here is my rationale:
1. The original release date was on a Saturday, and this is the last Saturday in April.
2. For an unexplained reason, all our shipping methods were moved to priority, which costs Apple money (so why did they do this?)
3. Apple intends to announce the release date at an upcoming event to make it another high-publicity moment.
4. That moment will be on Tuesday when the 1st quarter results are discussed. The ipad launch is of course in the 2nd quarter, but updates on its success are very relevant to investors and a lot of people will be listening in on this event.
5. However if everyone's shipment remained standard, and the intent was to deliver the product to homes on the day of the 3G release, then we'd see the charges hit our credit cards by now.
6. Apple wants some bang to this announcement, and doesn't want to tip anyone that this will come out on Tuesday. After all, everyone will be listening to this call anyway, there's no reason to create additional buzz around this.
7. That explains why all our shipment dates were moved to priority, to keep the announcement a secret, but still allow us to receive our ipads on the launch day.
8. Which will be April 24th, consistent with the late April shipping date and consistent with the nature of the first launch.
How's that for a conspiracy theory!
:ipad-keyboard: