As predicted by the analysts earlier this year, Apple has hit manufacturing bottleneck with its iPad tablet personal computer. The company said Wednesday that due to high demand towards its slate-type PC in the U.S., it would only start accept international pre-orders onto the device in mid-May.

“Although we have delivered more than 500 thousand 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. We have also taken a large number of pre-orders for iPad 3G models for delivery by the end of April,” a statement by Apple reads.

At present Apple ships three iPad models: 16GB, 32GB and 64 GB for suggested retail price of $499, $599 and $699, respectively. Initially, Apple promised to start shipping non-3G models immediately worldwide in late March, but had to limit the launch to the U.S. only and delay it by several days. The Wi-Fi + 3G models of iPad are delayed to late April in the U.S. and will cost $629 for the 16GB model, $729 for the 32GB model and $829 for the 64GB model.

“Faced with this surprisingly strong U.S. 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,” Apple said.

According to analysts, Apple has face an unspecified production problem at the iPad's manufacturer, Hon Hai Precision Industry.

Tags: Apple, iPad