The Dell Venue Pro has had a pretty interesting life so far, including an (extremely) initial limited release, WiFi problems, leaks, and finally an official widespread ship date: December 9th.  Unfortunately, it looks like those of us eager to give the portrait-sliding Venue Pro a try will be waiting longer than anticipated.  Many customers that pre-ordered the device are reporting that Dell has pushed their shipping date back to January 6th with no solid explanation for the delay.  People have been getting a handful of different explanations for the delay from Dell, including "excessive demand" and parts problems, and some customers haven't even been notified of the delay.  Dell hasn't officially commented on the issue.

There has been a lot of hype surrounding the Venue Pro, especially since it's one of the more unique Windows Phone 7 launch devices available, so it's kind of disappointing to see Dell fumbling the device's release so far.  It seems that there have been a few customers that have already canceled their orders, so hopefully Dell can get their act together soon, otherwise more customers will follow suit.  We'll update you if we hear from Dell on the situation, so stay tuned!

UPDATE: Dell has issued an unofficial statement on the matter, posted on their support forums.  The problem seems to stem from hardware problems, like the ones we've heard in the past.  Dell says that they still need to swap out handsets for some users that already have a Venue Pro and that they're reworking devices back in the factories to prevent the issues from popping up.  You can check out the full statement below:

Hi Folks,

I just wanted to share the latest ‘unofficial’ information that I have. As you know, we’ve had several issues reported with this product. Right now, Dell is trying to coordinate a plan with Microsoft to address these issues for the early adopters. From what I understand, it may require another hardware swap.  Further, the Venue Pros are being reworked in the factories to address some of the issues and we are awaiting these changes so the product can ship. This is affecting new orders as well.

Once we have good stock in place, then we have the ability to provide replacements. Unfortunately, I can’t give you a good estimate of when that will be. The news I hear changes daily and I hate to give you information that won’t be true tomorrow. For example, yesterday we heard that those folks with existing orders would be receiving a call from our cancel/re-enter team because there were going to be additional delays. However, today, we are hearing that some of these orders will be shipping this week. I couldn’t tell you which ones.

These delays are affecting both Microsoft early adopters and those of you with new orders. While I agree that this was not the best mobile device launch, I hope you take comfort in the fact that there is a good reason for the delays – fixing issues.

Having said all that, I want to let you know that if you are an early adopter (purchased from MS store), we continue to push for a solution whether that comes from Microsoft or Dell.  If you are waiting on a new order and it misses the original estimated ship date, you do have the option to cancel by contacting the sales team.

Again, I’ll post more information as it becomes available.

Thank you,

Amy

Via TmoNews (1), (2), SlashGear, WMPowerUser