Demand for iPads and iPhone 4s has far exceeded Apple’s expectations, the company has stated. Apple has admitted that it had a backlog of orders at the end of the last quarter and that they are “still selling both of those products as fast as we can make them”.

Not only are they selling every iPad and iPhone 4 that they can produce but they also claim to be “working around the clock” to address the supply/demand imbalance.
Some commentators have questioned whether Apple created a “shortage” of these devices simply to make more of a buzz about the iPad and IPhone 4, but the company denies this.

“We do not purposely create a shortage for buzz,” Apple’s Tim Cook is reported as saying. “I’m not sure where that comes from, but that is not our objective. We would like to fill every customer’s orders as quickly as we can.”Apple has been taken by surprise by the iPad’s sales rate.

Cook added: “We went into the iPad thinking that planning a one-million-per-month capacity was a very bold move. A lot of the industry analysts were predicting that we would only sell somewhere around that number for the whole calendar year. As you know we did one million the first month, then the second million the second month, and the third million the third month.”

Sounds like Apple is one company sitting in a fortunate economic position.

Apple’s iPad only recently went on sale but already the company is reporting that two million people worldwide have bought the sleek new gadget. The iPad was launched in the US two months ago and last month in the UK.

As the touchscreen device went on sale in the UK on May 28, Apple reported a huge surge in sales.

Apple also reported that 5,000 new applications have been created for the iPad, which is set to be launched in nine more countries next month and more later this year.

As we’ve said in these blogs before, one of the fastest areas of web growth is browsing the internet on mobile phones. Now there is further evidence of how popular mobile web use is becoming as Apple release Opera as a browser maker for iPhone. Within 24 hours the free app had been downloaded more than one million times pushing it to the top of the download charts.

While Opera Mini is not the first alternative to Apple’s Safari to be developed for the iPhone it is the first well-known PC browser to become available on Apple’s hugely popular mobile phone.

Apps have to be written specifically for mobile phones – and to suit each model so most come with a set browser. Now thanks to Opera, iPhone users have a choice of web browser. Apple also say that Opera will work on iPad.

It’s no surprise to find shopping giant Amazon.co.uk at number 1 in the latest top 50 on-line shops list, with Argos taking the number 2 slot and Play at number 3. Tesco also retained its place at number 7, while M&S climbed a place to number 5.

But this quarter the IMTG-Hitwise Top 50 e-tailers list reveals two on-line stores that are less popular. Amazon.com has again fallen a place to number 6. It was worse news for Next, which fell four places to number 8.

This month there were three new entrants in the top 10 list, announced on December 1, including Apple Computer ay number 4, John Lewis at 9 and Tesco Direct at 10.

The biggest movers this quarter were: GAME, up 20 places to 22, Boots up 19 places to 28 and Sainsbury’s up 17 places to 29.