New Zealand to get iPad in July

UPDATE: It has been confirmed that none of the three telcos that are Apple carriers in Australia - Telstra, Optus and Vodafone-Hutchison - will sell the iPad directly.

Instead, as in the US, punters will buy their desired model from Apple online (in this case store.apple.com.au) then choose a data plan from their chosen phone company.

Telstra was first to release pricing, which is:

And Optus weighed in second with a choice of three monthly plans: $A20 ($NZ24) for 2GB; $A36 ($NZ36 ) for 3GB; and $A60 ($NZ72) for 8GB.

Vodafone Australia has yet to reveal its pricing.

Both Telstra and Optus have copped flack for "Apple favouritism". That is, pricing iPad data plans well below those for other mobile devices. It's not everyday you see telcos accused of charging too little.

This morning (Monday May 10), as the Aussie telcos started taking pre-orders, Vodafone NZ still had no news on whether it will be an official carrier for the iPad 3G, due on our shores during July.

In the depths of a press release today (Saturday May 8), about its Aussie and European roll-out, Apple says it plans to make its iPad available in New Zealand during July - sneaking in ahead of the August release predicted by NBR back on March 27:

The text, spotted by ben.geek, runs:

Apple plans to release iPad in Austria, Belgium, Hong Kong, Ireland, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand and Singapore in July. Apple will announce availability, local pricing and pre-order plans for these nine additional countries at a later date.

That's the sum total of info at the moment. We don't know if it's wi-fi, or 3G (though we do know Vodafone NZ says it has no idea if it will sell the 3G version, despite Apple-Vodafone 3G hook-ups already set for the UK, Australia and elsewhere.

While no New Zealand pricing is listed, the release does offer Aussie prices (our cousins across the Tasman will be able to pre-order from Monday via apple.com.au/store ahead of the May 28 official release there. iBookstore will also be launched for Australia on May 28).

The prices are:

Wi-fi models
$A629 ($NZ756) for 16GB

$A759 ($NZ913) for 32GB

$A879 ($NZ1057) for 64GB for Wi-Fi models. Wi-Fi +

3G models
$A799 ($NZ961) for 16GB

$A928 ($NZ1116) for 32GB

$A1049 ($NZ1261) for 64GB

Will make scientific attempts to probe Apple for more on Monday.

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