A report surfaced earlier this week that unspecified production problems would limit the number of iPads manufactured by the announced availability date, and that original launch would possibly be limited to the United States.  The supplier in question, Taiwan's Foxconn Electronics, told DIGITIMES that it wasn't so.

AppleInsider and others reported Monday that the number of shipped units may drop to 300,000. The information came from analyst Peter Misek's speculation to investors that the delay could even affect the U.S. launch date. As MacLife said at the time, "Where have we heard this story before?" Limited supply rumors are frequent around new Apple devices--not that we're implying in any way that it's done to increase a sense of urgency among buyers to get them to buy quickly, or even preorder.

But Foxconn said that its supplies are on schedule and they should be able to ship 600,000-700,000 iPads in March and one million in April. There's no reason to limit availability if those estimates are true. Perhaps making investment decisions based on an analyst's unsubstantiated rumors isn't the wisest course.