Apple To Release iPad On April 3rd In US

Rumours of a March release for the Apple iPad have been swept aside as the company has formally announced that the tablet will be available from the 3rd of April, which is a Saturday.

Many major Apple launches have taken place on a Friday afternoon so it is something of a rare event for Apple to launch during a weekend. Only US customers will be able to buy the iPad on the 3rd.

Those in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the UK will have to wait till the end of April to get their mitts on the iPad. Pre-orders in the US start on the 12th, which is next Friday.

Oddly enough, only the WiFi version of the iPad will be on sale initially in the US with non US customers being able to buy both the WiFi and the 3G version when it launches at the end of the month.

Apple has not yet confirmed when customers will be able to preorder their iPad devices and has said that iBook Apps and the iBookstore will go live in the US on the 3rd of April with other countries possibly served before the launch of the tablet in other countries.

It will be interesting to find out just as well the new WiFi-only iPad sells. Apple has made sure that there's no way customers can upgrade their supersize iPod Touch. There's no USB ports, no 3G modem and the SIM card itself is different in size.

You can follow our extensive coverage of Apple's latest gadget - which was launched in January - here.