Some buyers of Apple’s 4th generation iPad with LTE are receiving notices (via 9t05Mac and MacRumors) that their shipments will arrive by November 16, otherwise known as this coming Friday. The latest iPad had originally been announced with an anticipated shipping date of mid-November, which would mean Apple is making good on its promises with shipping coming soon.
The ship times for Apple’s latest iPad with cellular connectivity recently jumped to 7 business days in the U.S. store, which could be an indication that those models didn’t make up the bulk of the 3 million iPad pre-orders (both mini and standard sizes) that Apple crowed about following its launch weekend of both devices. The LTE-capable iPad mini is still listed at 2 weeks anticipated shipping time in the U.S. store, but the longer lead times could just be a result of a more mature supply chain already existing for its larger sibling, which inherits a lot of similarities from its predecessor terms of components or assembly. Anticipated delivery dates for the iPad mini with LTE remain a bit further out, according to recent reports.
An earlier report also pegged the in-store selling day of the iPad mini and 4th generation iPad with LTE at November 16, at least at AT&T locations in the U.S. Apple’s non-LTE iPads and iPad mini models have been available for purchase in-store since November 2, although certain SKUs continue to remain scarce.
The 16GB Wi-Fi-only iPad mini has been the strongest seller to date, according to a recent survey by Topeka analyst Brian White of retail stock levels, with the 32 GB black version coming in second. It’ll be interesting to see if buyers continue to opt for lower capacity versions when the cellular-capable versions hit stores, and how the added value of LTE sways buying decisions.