NATS - the body that manages the UK’s airspace - closed the skies over Britain today in response to ash produced by an erupting volcano in Iceland; the huge cloud, drifting south from the top of the Eyjafjallajoekull glacier, can cause catastrophic failure of jet engines. Meanwhile, hundreds of geeks have been left wondering how long the iPads they had bullied or begged US-based colleagues and friends to send them would be delayed.
Several Twitter commenters suggested this wasn’t the natural phenomenon it appeared to be and was actually part of Apple’s campaign to limit supply to ‘international’ customers until US demand had been satisfied. Others simply recalled the iPhone shortage at launch - also widely considered an attempt to sustain public hunger for Apple’s lusted-after gadget.
Microsoft fans rejected this claim pointing out that Steve Balmer was a far more likely to be behind the emission of huge amounts of hot air and gas, in an attempt to prevent the iPad talk continuing to overshadow the announcement of the 2 ‘Kin’ devices earlier this week.
This afternoon the Metropolitan Police was establishing a care centre at London’s Heathrow airport to offer councelling to distressed would-be iPad owners who have been gathering there throughout the morning to await news of the arrival of their gadgets.
The cause of delays to personal iPad imports
More news as we get it…
Photo credit: Flickr user ‘Narisa’. Inspired by: @loudmouthman.