A week ago, we had broken the news regarding the imminent launch of the iPad 2 in India. Apple has a finally made the launch official effectively confirming our report. Like we had mentioned, India features in the list of 12 countries where the tablet would go on sale starting April 29, 2011.
This also comes after Vijay Sales sort of pumped up the hype about the arrival of the iPad 2 in their stores soon. Apart from India, the iPad 2 also goes on sale in Hong Kong, Israel, Korea, Macau, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, South Africa, Turkey and UAE. The China launch will happen only on May 6.
The iPad 2 was already being sold in India for exorbitant prices in the grey market. There were also some websites selling the iPad 2 in India unofficially, before this official launch. As for the prices, here’s how things are stacked up. Prices start from Rs.29,500 for the base Wi-Fi only 16GB version to Rs.46,900 for the Wi-Fi plus 3G 64 GB variant. Here are the individual prices of each of the models.
Wi-Fi 16GB Rs.29,500
Wi-Fi 32 GB Rs. 34,500
Wi-Fi 64 GB Rs. 39,500
Wi-Fi+3G 16 GB Rs. 36,900
Wi-Fi+3G 32 GB Rs. 41,900
Wi-Fi+3G 64 GB Rs. 46,900
India also gets the Smart Cover for the iPad 2. The polyurethane version is priced at Rs. 2,100 while the leather version will set you back by Rs. 3,800. All these prices are inclusive of VAT.
What do you think about these prices? The old iPad prices started from Rs.27,900 and topped at Rs. 44,900 for the top end variant. Do you think paying a small premium is okay for the new, faster, sleeker iPad 2?
Update: We are getting signals (mixed with a little guessing by @annkur) that the iPad 2 might go on sale with a lot of retailers for Rs 27900 and not Rs 29500 (which happens to be the Apple MRP). Wait and watch.
Congrats onlygizmos for jolting india. Pricing is definitely unexpected . But people are already paying 35-55k in grey. But one wud have expected slight increase vis-a-vis us prices. But finally apple gives the most deserved importance to Indian markets..
I wonder what kind of inventory these countries will receive. Although more iPad 2s are showing up on iPad2Tracker.com, the demand in the US is still ridiculously high. It will be interesting to see if Apple’s manufacturing capacity has increased significantly or if the supply everywhere will remain very low.
samsung galaxy tab 2 is better. 1gb ram, usb port., micro sd card slot,
10.1 inch screen, adobe flash support. why shld 1 buy ipad then? micro sim cards not available easily in pune for 3G support. so 3Gversion difficult to use. samsung tab 2 launching next month.
Any idea where i can buy one online(not ebay please)?