Wi-Fi iPads Reach UK, And Users Can Download US Apps

Two sites are already selling Apple’s iPad in the UK, in advance of the device’s launch here. Despite reports of difficulties, eWEEK Europe has found no problems adding apps to our US-sourced model, which arrived today.

The iPad is not officially launched in the UK but rumours of a 24 April date appear very solid. It also has no announced price yet, but Purely Gadgets and Simply Electronics both claim to have the Wi-Fi version in stock on their sites, with 16G, 32G or 63Gbyte of storage, presumably imported from the US.

Although the official UK price is not announced, Purely Gadgets says its 16Gbyte verion at £689.99 is a discount on the retaiil price of “£814.99”. The 32G and 64G versions cost £785.99 and £869.99 respectively, delivery is £5 and VAT appears to be included. At Simply Electronic, delivery is free and quoted at “1-2 days”. The devices are cheaper there, at £549.95, and £649.95 ££779.9, again apparently including VAT.

Can you get apps?

According to Pocket-lint, a US address is needed in order to download apps for the iPad, which has now sold 450,000 units as of Thursday, since its release on 3 April in the United States.

Furthermore, Pocket-lint is warning that those crafty UK users who manage to create a US iTunes account using a fictitious US address, will still be frustrated as a US credit card is needed, with a full US address in order to purchase iPad apps. UK credit cards will apparently not work.

eWEEK Europe’s own iPad has already arrived at a secret location in Europe, where we have tested the problem – it turns out to be very easy to register for a non-paying account on the US app store, and then buy apps using vouchers which can be bought online.

As we understand it, once the UK iPad is launched, apps will be easy to download from the UK app store, for all users, including those who, indirectly or directly, bought the device over from the US.

Apple’s official position on the UK arrival of the iPad is that it will be launched over here in “late April”. It is not clear at this time when it will open up iTunes in the UK to iPad apps.

Meanwhile, unofficial reports suggest that the iPad will hit UK shores on Saturday 24 April. According to Bitterwallet, this date was mentioned by two separate sources. It cited one source as “an individual claiming to be an Apple employee who explicitly claims the date is correct.” The other source has been told by an employee that staff working in Apple’s UK stores are not allowed time off on 24th April, and that extra staff have been asked to work in-store.

Last month, UberGizmo also suggested that 24 April would be the UK release date, after it also said that Apple staff had been told not to take leave on that date.

However, CNET UK believes it will arrive on Monday 26 April after it learnt that a major publisher’s app team is readying its iPad app for release on that date.

Having given our own iPad a brisk run-through, we won’t be using it. It’s a prize in our latest draw for newsletter subscribers. Hopefully, Apple will turn on the UK version of the iPad apps store soon.