I live in Simpsonville, Kentucky, one county over from Louisville, Kentucky, which is home to an international hub for UPS. Evidently, all iPads will stop in Louisville on their way from China to purchasers' homes and businesses. Anyone who has been trying to track their iPad shipment this week on the UPS website has seen their packages go from China to Louisville and then see the Louisville references disappear from the tracking detail. Although I've confirmed via a response from UPS contact email that my iPad will arrive on Saturday, I wouldn't know that simply from looking at my tracking information. There is nothing under the column of delivery date.
Moreover, it seems that iPad shipments may have been sitting in Louisville for a few days, but being held, presumably under instructions from Apple, until delivery on Saturday which is not a "normal" delivery day for UPS. Usually Saturday delivery costs extra, but Apple did not charge to ship iPads to customers, nor to have them delivered on Saturday.
Living so close to Louisville, I know a number of people who work for UPS. I was discussing the iPad shipments with a friend of mine who works in UPS management. Obviously, this was an "unofficial" off-the-cuff remark, but I thought he made an interesting appraisal of the whole situation:
"I know there was a problem with the way the packages were processed and there turned out to be far more [shipments] than UPS expected. It was like a Mothers Day week or something and caught everyone off guard."
Very interesting. But for those of us waiting on the delivery of our iPads tomorrow, I'm certain that we have nothing to be concerned about. This isn't UPS' first rodeo.