Because of the rapacious greed of Americans, those in the Euro-zone will not have their iPads until May, at least according to a short release by Apple. Blaming the popularity of the iPad in the US (and potentially some issues with Wi-Fi) , European pre-orders will not arrive in your charming town or hameau until May 10. This goes for the iPad 3G version as well.

Apple, always one to toot their own trompette, hoped that Europe is happy to know that the iPad is a “runaway success.” Cold comfort, I say.

Apple today released the following statement:

Although we have delivered more than 500,000 iPads during its first week, demand is far higher than we predicted and will likely continue to exceed our supply over the next several weeks as more people see and touch an iPad™. We have also taken a large number of pre-orders for iPad 3G models for delivery by the end of April.

Faced with this surprisingly strong US demand, we have made the difficult decision to postpone the international launch of iPad by one month, until the end of May. We will announce international pricing and begin taking online pre-orders on Monday, May 10. We know that many international customers waiting to buy an iPad will be disappointed by this news, but we hope they will be pleased to learn the reason—the iPad is a runaway success in the US thus far.

By Andrew Liszewski

The Onion reminds us that for every company that started in a garage but grew into a giant corporation like Apple or Hewlett-Packard, there were probably hundreds of other companies that never quite experienced the same growth and success. Like “Xalaga Technologies” started by “MIT graduates Donald Faber and Peter Haberle.”

According to Faber and Haberle, a lot has changed since Xalaga was first founded. What was once a struggling $7,500-a-year business with only a dozen or so paying customers is now a desperate $6,400-a-year business with only a half dozen or so paying customers.

Faber, who turned down a promising position with GE in order to start Xalaga, a decision he now says he regrets each and every waking day, told reporters that he knew almost immediately that his company had something not-at-all special on its hands.

“We sold only one computer that first year, then the following year it was three computers, then suddenly 10 computers, then just as suddenly five computers, then back down to three computers again, and finally only one or two machines every other year for pretty much the next decade,” said Faber, standing up from the plastic milk crate that now serves as his desk. “Had someone told us when we first started that we’d be here today, operating out of a much smaller, somehow less expensive garage, we probably would have laughed right in their face.”

So here’s to all those little guys who never quite stopped being the little guys, and in some cases became even smaller.

[ The Onion - Computer Company Started In Garage 30 Years Ago Now In Smaller Garage ]