Why do Xserve RAID cards take so long to ship?

Question

I have ordered three RAID cards (I need two and I was advised to get an extra for a backup) for our early 2006 Xserve. The cards are due to ship in just less than a month, why so long?

Answer 1

It's probably an issue of supply vs. demand - in this case, the demand for such cards isn't high, so there aren't many in the supply chain.
Typically even the manufacturer doesn't keep a local stock of low-demand items, instead running periodic production runs when there's sufficient demand. So some of the delay may be in waiting for the orders to queue up to a level that warrants a production run.
Even if there is a stock, some manufacturers have minimum order values (e.g. they won't fulfill and order for less than $x, or y units), or offer significant discounts for large orders (thereby making one-off orders cost prohibitive), so the delay may be in Apple queuing up the orders until there's sufficient quantity to make it worthwhile.
Either way there isn't much you can do unless you can find another reseller who has one in stock, or go used.