Apple Inc, which sold its millionth iPad last week, will begin selling the device in the UK and eight other countries on May 28, and offer the tablet computer in nine additional markets in July.
The first group of countries also includes Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain and Switzerland, the company said in a statement on Friday. Customers can pre-order beginning tomorrow.
As demand for the iPad outpaced supply in the US, chief executive officer Steve Jobs delayed overseas shipments by about a month, to the end of this month. The touch-screen device began selling in the US on April 3, and its 3G version went on sale last week.
Jobs said last week that the company had sold the first 1 million iPads in 28 days, while the iPhone had taken 74 days to reach that mark.
The nine countries that will start getting the iPad in July are: Austria, Belgium, Mexico, Hong Kong, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Singapore, Apple said.
Softbank Corp, the exclusive iPhone carrier in Japan, will price the iPad at ¥48,960 (US$535) for the basic model with Wi-Fi capability and 16 megabytes of memory.
Softbank will begin taking orders tomorrow for the iPad, which will be available in Japan on May 28, it said yesterday in a statement. The cheapest iPad 3G model will cost ¥58,320, Softbank said.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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