The massive earthquake and the tsunami it spawned in Japan pushed back the late March launch of iPad 2 in the country even as Apple struggle to meet the refurbished tablet's online demand, admitting on Wednesday that global consumers will have to endure weeks of delay.

The gadgets will not arrive as earlier intended to international buyers who purchased their iPads through Apple's online store and waiting time could last by as much as five weeks, according to company officials.

Apple has yet to report on the actual sales of iPad snatched so far by consumers since its debut on Saturday but many analysts are confident that the tablet will easily push out some 600,000of units, with a Piper Jaffrey going a bit further by predicting at least one million units will fly off the shelves during the initial days.

If the situation on various retail outlets were any indication, as Best Buy, Walmart, Target, AT&T and Verizon reported of early sellouts and long queues, then the projections could not be far from the actual sales number posted by the second generation tablet so far, which should be known soon.

Experts said that it is not remote that iPad would equal or even surpass the 1.7 million iPhones sold in the first day it was marketed but analysts fear that such incredible demand would eventually stretch Apple's ability to supply the hugely in-demand product.

While research firm IDC has reported that the first generation iPad's market shares dipped from a high of 93 percent to 73 percent as 2010 approaches its end, it maintained that Apple would still enjoy a maximum share of 80 percent for the new tablet throughout 2011 despite the entry of more competition mainly from Motorola's Xoom and Samsung's Galaxy.

However, the supply shortage may not be felt at all in disaster-hit Japan, which is supposed to welcome the new iPad 2 on March 25. Fate would have it that Japanese devotees of Apple will have to wait a little longer, not only because of the country's more pressing concerns at this time but also of the Cupertino-based firm's decision to delay the scheduled Japan debut of iPad's second iteration.