back to article New iPad: Crack open your wallets, fanbois, here's what it'll cost

The new iPad that was revealed to feverish fanbois last night in San Fran will be on UK shelves in about a week's time - 16 March. Yes, Brits, you can pre-order one now, or grab a sleeping bag and start making your way to Regent Street. The new iPad will be available in black or white, pricing will be the same as the iPad 2 …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Photos please

    Can The Register please dispatch a photographer to record all these pseudo masochists who would want to suffer sleepless nights, cold, rain, hunger, sunshine (whatever), all for the pleasure of emptying their pockets for St. Jobs' manna from heaven?

  2. Arctic fox
    Thumb Down

    "Yes, Brits, you can pre-order one now, or grab a sleeping bag...................

    .....................and start making your way to Regent Street."

    The Old One is more likely to complain about the air conditioning in the "Other Place" than I am to do any such thing. Utterly regardless of which producer/manufacturer we are talking about.

  3. jake Silver badge

    And in 7-9 months ...

    ... you can throw it away and get the iFad4(c)(r)(tm)! Yes, folks, you've arrived! You're a consumer! Ain't it wonnerful?

    As a side note, ElReg, that's "San Francisco" or "The City".

    1. Chad H.

      Re: And in 7-9 months ...

      And this is different to other consumer electronic devices.... How?

      1. jake Silver badge

        Re: And in 7-9 months ...

        It's different in that modern marketing has created many false needs.

        With the exception of replacing rechargeable batteries in miscellaneous bits of kit, the last consumer electronics device I bought was a Porter Cable half inch drill. 7 years ago. I didn't even look for one on sale ... when my near 25 year old unit burned out, I got on a bike & rode to the nearest store that sells Porter Cable power tools, and bought one. A couple months earlier I had to buy a new Krups coffee grinder. The coffee grinder is starting to die, but I'll bet my bottom dollar that the drill will last another 20 years.

        This laptop is over 8 years old. It does everything I need it to do, why change it? My cellphone is nearly 11 years old. It works where modern cellphones do not, including over half this ranch.

        My philosophy is to buy a tool right the first time, then wear it out ... and pray that the company who built the original unit hasn't started skimping on quality over the years when replacement is necessary.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Wow...

    Toys have got expensive, haven't they?

    1. This post has been deleted by its author

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Wow...

      These are not the 'Droids you're looking for. Those come bundled with "Google Play".

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Wow...

        @AC 14:23

        I vote for this post to be considered for the Best Post of 2012.

        The chocolate milk that spewed from my nose when I read this agrees in full.

        1. Andy Kay
          WTF?

          Re: Wow...

          lol - chocolate milk? What are you, 8?

          1. Oninoshiko
            Thumb Down

            Re: Wow...

            The wonderful thing about being an adult, is you can determine what being an adult means. If that means drinking choclate milk, then have at it.

            elReg commentards be damned.

          2. deadlockvictim
            Thumb Up

            Re: Wow...

            Strawberry milk (ichigomiruku) is good too, especially on hot summer days. It is a bit sweet though.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Holy major rip-off Batman

    £100 just to add 3G. Nothing else just 3G. And yet you can buy an entire low-end smartphone complete with 3G for less than that price.

    Remind me again why Apple fans think Apple kit is not overpriced

    1. DrXym

      Re: Holy major rip-off Batman

      Archos have it right. Their tablet has a hatch at the back. If you want 3G you buy a 3G dongle and stick it in the hatch. The dongle also works in a PC. Cost - £50.

      In other words Apple and other manufactures which slap £100 markup for 3G are taking the piss. Same goes for memory too. Prevent the user from adding their own cheap SD memory and then charge them through the nose for models which contain more memory built-in.

    2. jonathan1

      Re: Holy major rip-off Batman

      TBH,

      All tablets (to me at least) are over priced even the Android ones (from the likes of Samsung I mean).

    3. Richard 81

      Re: Holy major rip-off Batman

      Is it £100 for 3G, or £100 for 4G and 3G one of which you can't use?

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Can you?

      Unlocked (unsubsidised) and supporting HSPA at 42Mbit/s?

      Don't think so, but if you can please post links. Don't forget it also includes a GPS chip.

    5. dboy

      Re: Holy major rip-off Batman

      Actually to be fair, that's to add LTE and 3G, which no one I know of is doing for £100.

      The base model costs are quite reasonable, it's just the extortionate amount they want to charge in order to add memory that makes me baulk.

      I am most pleased at being able to delete stuff from photo stream though. Don't understand why it was ever missing...

      1. ducatis'r us

        Re: Holy major rip-off Batman

        Deletion from photostream is only on that one device. If you have 'accidentally' taken a pic on your iPhone and you have photo stream on it will not delete that pic from any other household iDevice.

        And while I'm still griping, 10.6 iTunes only allows re-download of purchased movies in the US of A.

    6. FartingHippo
      Megaphone

      Re: Holy major rip-off Batman

      Apple must be using some amazing flash memory too, to justify those costs. It's probably carved from Foxconn workers bones or something.

    7. Chad H.

      Re: Holy major rip-off Batman

      Does your low end smartphone support HSPA? Probably not.

      That said, most users can probably get away without the 3G.

    8. Lusty

      Re: Holy major rip-off Batman

      "£100 just to add 3G. Nothing else just 3G. And yet you can buy an entire low-end smartphone complete with 3G for less than that price."

      It also adds GPS functionality

      1. magnetik
        Facepalm

        Re: Holy major rip-off Batman

        Well the original point stands - you can get a smartphone with 3G and GPS (and a whole lot more besides) for less than the price of adding those two features to the iPad.

        1. ThomH

          Re: Holy major rip-off Batman (@magnetik)

          While Apple are clearly profiting disproportionately more from the higher cost models, the original point alleged this behaviour was unique to Apple. Going to Amazon and searching for 'Galaxy Tab' shows that Samsung's list prices charge the consumer... £100 extra for 3G. Or £100 extra to move from 16gb of built-in storage to 32gb.

          So in that sense the original point doesn't really stand at all. This isn't an example of Apple overcharging, it's an example of the market overcharging and Apple following market trends.

          1. Jedit Silver badge
            FAIL

            " it's an example of the market overcharging and Apple following market trends."

            I would agree with this except for one minor detail: Apple are the trendsetters, and everyone else is following them.

      2. Bronek Kozicki
        Happy

        GPS too?

        You mean, if I compare "market loser" RIM PlayBook against "market winner" WiFi only iPad, then GPS is another one of many things iPad doesn't have? And they are just now catching up with 5Mpx camera?

        One has to love effectiveness of Apple marketing!

  6. g e
    Meh

    OMFG

    I'll hang on for a Samsung Galaxy S3 I think (yes I know that's a phone). It'll be a free upgrade from Vodafone.

    Then I'll have something nice and fast to play with while I assess a Transformer Infinity to see if it'll replace a laptop.

    Seriously. That's a shit revision for a lot of money, it should've been called the iPad 2s

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: OMFG

      g e, don't you ever get tired of mindlessly bashing Apple in every post?

      The S3 and the Infinity are both vapourware, no one knows the price or actual specs.

      Does this really make you that desperate that you have to pull out two unannounced, unreleased and unknown products to compare it with?

      You're grasping at straws here.

      1. I ain't Spartacus Gold badge

        Re: OMFG

        Stuff the products he's talking about being vapourware...

        Vodafone will not NOT NOT be giving you a free upgrade. Those new Samsungs will cost £500-£600 (going on what the last 2 Galaxy's cost). Vodafone are not a charity. They do not give you the phone. You are paying more for your contract to get it.

        ...And relax... Sorry, personal bugbear there. Phones ain't bloody free!

        Thinking about it, a 16GB iPad with 3G is £500. Which is the same price as the current top end iPhone/Samsung Galaxy II/HTC/Motorola.

        So the iPad is incredibly cheap, or the phones are incredibly expensive. Or, more likely, the iPad (until you start paying for extra memory) is not too bad, and the phones are an enormous rip-off.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        @AC 15:00 Re: OMFG

        don't feed the troll.

    2. introiboad

      Re: OMFG

      But this is not meant for everybody to upgrade. If you already have an iPad, you're don't have to upgrade, the same way many people won't upgrade from Sandy Bridge to Ivy Bridge. That doesn't prevent Intel from introducing new chips every year!

      If you want a tablet, now you can buy an Apple one with hi-res display and better camera. If you don't, or already have an older iPad, stay home and enjoy life.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Headmaster

    Mates' rates

    Strange that currency converters seem to feature so heavily in Apple's 'beginning OSX programming' tutorials, yet they always seem to have so much difficulty translating their prices from $$$ to £££ with any accuracy.

    Based on today's rates from xe.com, Apple are stiffing UK buyers by around an extra quarter of the purchase price and, curiously enough, [and albeit slightly] you get more ripped off, the more expensive model you buy:

    Wi-Fi

    $499 16GB = £316 as opposed to Apple's UK price of: £399 [26,26% increase]

    $599 32GB = £379 as opposed to Apple's UK price of: £479 [26,38% increase]

    $699 64GB = £442 as opposed to Apple's UK price of: £559 [26,47% increase]

    Wi-Fi + 4G (just 3G in Blighty)

    $629 16GB = £398 as opposed to Apple's UK price of: £499 [25,37% increase]

    $729 32GB = £461 as opposed to Apple's UK price of: £579 [25,59% increase]

    $829 64GB = £525 as opposed to Apple's UK price of: £659 [25,52% increase]

    1. Wyrdness

      Re: Mates' rates

      You seem to have conveniently posted the US$ prices without sales tax and the UK prices including VAT.

      1. Dave Walker
        Pirate

        Re: Mates' rates States Slates

        The UK has a standard sales tax with the VAT. Here in the 'states each state, and sometimes municipality, sets their own rates.

        This variability is why national sellers advertise the base rate. you're on your own figuring out what will be added when you get to the till.

        DX

    2. Anonymous Coward
      FAIL

      Re: Mates' rates

      You haven't heard of this thing called VAT?

    3. jahill

      Re: Mates' rates

      Surely add in the UK's VAT rate at 20% leaves a price difference of just 5%?

    4. Chad H.

      Re: Mates' rates

      Devils advocate, there's also shipping

    5. mccp
      FAIL

      Re: Mates' rates

      Wi-Fi

      $499 16GB = £316 as opposed to Apple's UK price (excluding VAT) of: £332.50 [5.22% increase]

      $599 32GB = £379 as opposed to Apple's UK price (excluding VAT) of: £399.16 [5.32% increase]

      $699 64GB = £442 as opposed to Apple's UK price (excluding VAT) of: £465.83 [5.39% increase]

      Wi-Fi + 4G (just 3G in Blighty)

      $629 16GB = £398 as opposed to Apple's UK price (excluding VAT) of: £415.83 [4.48% increase]

      $729 32GB = £461 as opposed to Apple's UK price (excluding VAT) of: £482.50 [4.66% increase]

      $829 64GB = £525 as opposed to Apple's UK price (excluding VAT) of: £549.16 [4.60% increase]

      There - fixed that for you.

    6. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Mates' rates

      Don't worry in Belgium and probably the rest of Europe this will probably be:

      $499 --> 499 € which should be 379.90 € +31% increase

      $599 --> 599 € which should be 456.03 € +30% increase

      and so on

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    ~25% Sounds about right

    20% VAT, 5% currency hedging costs.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    optional extras

    ...cost 80 quid for 16GB more SSD, and 100 quid for a crappy 3g modem? Ouch!

    1. Lusty

      Re: optional extras

      "cost 80 quid for 16GB more SSD"

      You seem very certain that there is only 16GB more SSD in there - I'm curious whether this is confirmed anywhere?

      Proper SSD from proper drive suppliers come with much more storage than quoted - the wear levelling then replaces broken bits with new ones to keep capacity static while the cells die off. Apple being a premium vendor may actually be putting 32GB extra in to offer 16GB more capacity.

  10. Andrew James

    cheaper ipad2 ...

    Does the cheaper iPad2 mean that mobile networks bundling them with a 2 year data deal will now be reducing their prices for them too?

  11. Malcolm 5

    Inc VAT

    so are those UK prices inc vat?

    if they are a 6% markup is a pity but not immense.

    1. Andrew James

      Re: Inc VAT

      Yes, thats inc VAT.

  12. Audrey S. Thackeray

    Japanese version of Siri?

    That just sounds daft.

    </1970scomedy>

    1. FartingHippo

      Re: Japanese version of Siri?

      Tsk. It sounds silly.

      </1970s comedy>

      1. BorkedAgain
        Thumb Up

        Re: Re: Japanese version of Siri?

        Yay! That was the joke! And you killed it!

  13. johnnymotel
    Thumb Up

    unless of course...

    you have a friend in Oregon (0% sales tax) who is coming over this year...

  14. John A Blackley

    There is another option

    If you don't like it, don't buy it (and resist the urge to tell everyone who does like it how stuipid they are).

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