All those Maltese seeking to get their hands on the Apple iPad should not hold their breath for they are bound for a long wait. Last week Apple announced that the international launch of the tablet has been postponed by a month.
The situation in Malta is even worse, as the iPad is not expected to be available locally in Malta before the last quarter of this year, possibly as late as December, i-Tech can reveal.
In its media advisory last week, Apple said: "Although we have delivered more than 500,000 iPads during its first week, demand is far higher than we predicted and will likely continue to exceed our supply over the next several weeks as more people see and touch an iPad. We have also taken a large number of pre-orders for iPad 3G models for delivery by the end of April.
"Faced with this surprisingly strong US demand, we have made the difficult decision to postpone the international launch of iPad by one month, until the end of May. We will announce international pricing and begin taking online pre-orders on Monday, May 10. We know that many international customers waiting to buy an iPad will be disappointed by this news, but we hope they will be pleased to learn the reason - the iPad is a runaway success in the US thus far."
The so-called "international" launch of iPad is limited to a few countries such as Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the UK.
"Apple has not communicated any official (or unofficial) launch for our territories, neither have they communicated any pricing yet," said Adrian Micallef, general manager at iCentre, the Apple authorised service provider in Malta.
Mr Micallef has been through several major Apple product launches in the past and the mystery shrouding the iPad in Malta is nothing new for him.
"It is not even clear where it will be sold, besides the Apple website and Apple stores. My personal impression is that as a first stage the sales points will be very limited, the same as had happened with the iPhone. We regret that we have no more information, but my gut feeling is that we will not have it before autumn or December," he told i-Tech.
This situation has created a lot of "grey" sales. Some iPads are available on eBay and other online shopping sites but the price is over the roof, taking advantage of the very high demand that outstrips the supply, according to Reuters.
"There is huge demand. I'm buying as many as I can," said Todd Davis, proprietor of ToddsToyz. com, a Boston-based web retailer that ships consumer electronics around the globe.
Reuters reported the firm charges $100 to $150 over list price for the devices, though some retailers on eBay were asking for $1,200 or more for a high-end model that Apple sells for $699.
Mr Davis said he had only been able to get his hands on five units before they sold out, but planned to spend an afternoon scouring Boston area Apple stores and Best Buy Co Inc outlets for more.
British online retailer PurelyGadgets.co.uk was selling tablets for $914 to $1,223, a hefty premium over their original price of $499 to $699. A salesman said they were almost sold out.
When i-Tech did a simple check on eBay on the availability of iPad, the results were very limited and confirmed the inflated prices being asked for. What is really astounding is that some people have registered internet domain names related to iPad, such as syncmyipad.com and online-ipad.com, and they are now trying to sell them for an asking price of US$15 million. A portfolio of nine domains with the words "tablet" and "iPad" in them was being offered for US$21 million on eBay.
The iPad is a 9.7-inch touchscreen tablet, similar to the iPhone in appearance, ideal for browsing the web, reading and sending e-mail, enjoying photos, watching videos, listening to music, playing games, reading e-books and much more, according to Apple. Some have described it as a cross between a smartphone and a laptop.
It runs most of the applications already available for the iPhone and iPod Touch in Apple's app store. iTunes has been updated to cater for syncronisation with the tablet.
iPad is powered by A4, Apple's next-generation system-on-a-chip and comes in two versions - one with Wi-Fi and the other with both Wi-Fi and 3G. iPad includes the latest 802.11n Wi-Fi, and the 3G versions support speeds up to 7.2 Mbps on HSDPA networks.
Since the announcement of the iPad in January the tech community around the world was buzzing with analysis on the device, ranging from whether we need such a device at all to whether it will create a new market.
Being an Apple product, the hype reached hysterical proportions as the countdown started for the date when it was to go on sale.
Reactions were quite mixed. While some hailed it as a replacement for the laptop or the netbook, others contented that the iPad was in a class of its own. For example, the iPad does not come with a camera, you cannot make or receive calls as it is not a mobile phone, you cannot plug it to a monitor or projector, and you cannot perform all the tasks which are routine on a laptop or netbook. There is no multi-tasking and limited office work can be done through the special versions of Apple's iWork that includes a word processor and a spreadsheet application. One more drawback is that, like other Apple devices, it does not support Flash, the technology used to deliver YouTube videos and many online applications and services.
On the other hand, its touchscreen is ideal to go online, use social networking sites, check e-mail, watch videos, listen to music and read e-books. The latter in particular is being hailed as a facility that should go down very well with students and publishers who see in it as a lifeline for their fading print publishing.
The iPad is not the first of its kind. In the past there were other attempts with tablet computers but these did not catch the imagination of the market. Maybe Apple's profile and its knack to deliver likable, trendy products (like the iPod and iPhone) can create a new breed of devices worth the money spent.