Since an economic crisis began to sweep over much of Asia nearly a year ago, air traffic has plunged, and many airlines have delayed orders for new airplanes.

But judges usually delay issuing orders until it is too late.

"A significant reason for the revenue shortfall was that many customers delayed orders in anticipation of our new products," he said.

Some have quit trading the most popular stocks of on-line investors or shut their automatic trading systems, delaying orders by up to 20 minutes.

German generals and others delayed several orders, such that they were never delivered, such as the delivery of German combat aircraft.

The company said many of its customers were delaying orders because of high inventory levels.

Earlier this month, for example, Northwest Airlines canceled or delayed orders worth $6.2 billion from Airbus.

The Plexus Corporation, an electronics company, announced that its earnings would fall short of expectations because customers were delaying orders.

But obviously, delayed orders meant delayed revenue for Boeing and therefore was material to its bottom line.

The problem, they said, was delayed orders and shipments from data storage and specialty semiconductor customers.