Apple has broken sales records of the iPhone with the iPad selling over 300,000 iPads in the first few days and during the iPhone 4.0 OS event , the number stood at 450,000. Many of those 4.5 lac iPads are shipping out of the us through unofficial channels.Apple iPad is already selling in grey markets in India and it’s available on Ebay too. But the price of the iPad in India is almost the cost of 2 iPads. The price was insane initially but has stabilized a bit, still not realistic.
We inquired various dealers across the country and no one was willing to sell the base model below Rs.40000. Sites like 20North are selling the 16gb WiFi version for Rs. 38372. The device is available on Ebay India too for Rs.36,000 and upwards (no idea about the reputation of the sellers though).
Why are the prices so high ? Most sellers procure the iPad from US through courier and pay duties too. But they still make a hefty profit after the incurred costs.
The iPad is expected to launch in International markets on April 24th and India might not be in the list of markets mostly. But since supply is bound to increase in the market, prices might come down as a result.
But in case you are interested to get one check out our round up of reviews of the iPad