Customers in Japan and Australia can pre-order Apple’s popular iPad tablet from today.
Apple has announced that the iPad would go on sale in nine international markets - Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the UK - on May 28, with pre-ordering in these markets to begin today.
Japanese operator Softbank Mobile announced the WiFi-capable iPad with 16GB’s of memory will go on sale in Japan for 48,960 yen ($535).
The cheapest iPad 3G model will cost 58,320 yen with a two-year contract and monthly subscription fee of 3,225 yen.
Australian incumbent Telstra said that while the base model iPad will be priced at A$629 ($582.68), the cheapest 16GB 3G-equipped iPad will be available for A$749 compared with $499 in the US.
The iPad’s international rollout has been delayed by more than one month following higher than expected demand for the tablet in the US.
The iPad debuted in the US on April 3, with the 3G version going on sale last week.
Apple claims to have sold 1 million iPads in the first 28 days, with users downloading over 12 million apps and more than 1.5 million e-books.
Apple will commence the third stage of its global iPad rollout in July when the device will go on sale in nine more countries, including New Zealand, Hong Kong and Singapore.