Dow Jones Newswires | Apple Inc. said it will postpone its international iPad sales launch by one month to the end of May because higher-than-expected U.S. demand will likely exceed its supply of the device for the next several weeks.

U.S. demand is “far higher” than it predicted, it said. The company delivered 500,000 iPads during its first week of availability. It has also taken a “large number” of pre-orders for iPad 3G models for delivery by the end of April.

Early sales of the device missed forecasts by some analysts. Apple sold
more than 300,000 iPads in the U.S. on the first day the device was
available, falling short of a Piper Jaffray analyst’s estimate of
between 600,000 and 700,000 units.

Shares rose 1.11 percent to $245.11 in recent pre-market trading. The shares have more than doubled in the past 12 months.

The company plans to announce international pricing and begin taking online pre-orders on May 10.