International iPad day looms

iNerds line up to be fleeced

The iPad launches around the world today having already been available to buy in Apple's home US market for some time.

The device is on sale now in Australia and Japan and will soon hit Europe, heading for Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Switzerland today. The Canadians also get a look-in today. iFans in Austria, Belgium, Hong Kong, Ireland, Luxembourg, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Singapore will have to wait, quivering, until  July.

A queue 200 yards long was reported outside Apple's shop in Sydney before it opened and a similar bunch of nutters was seen in Tokyo.

"Now the time has come for us to hold an iPhone in the right (hand) and iPad in the left -- just like the samurai with two swords!" Softbank president Masayoshi Son burbled at the first Tokyo shop flogging the device

Some 40 iTwats were reported sleeping outside a central London Apple shop at  3:00am this morning, gibbering.

We've dispatched a reporter down there to see what all the fuss is about. Stay iTuned.