They really should have gone with "iSlice"

Apparently the iPad is not the first device to be called "iPad." There could end up being a long legal battle with Fujitsu.

And then there are the problems with pronunciation of iPad:

Many women are saying the name evokes awkward associations with feminine hygiene products. People from Boston to Ireland are complaining that “iPad,” in their regional brogue, sounds almost indistinguishable from “iPod,” Apple’s music player.

I noticed this when discussing the product with "M," who seemed to be mixing up iPod and iPad in conversation. Being a native Japanese speaker, she was pronouncing iPad with the "ah" sound usually used when an a in a foreign word is rendered in katakana. This, of course, sounds a lot like how the o in iPod is pronounced by North Americans.

In Korea, I guess we wouldn't have that problem, since the ae is the usual suspect for the "short a." Hence we have ae•p'ŭl for Apple, and now ai•p'aet [아이팻] for iPad, which is easily distinguishable from ai•pat [아이팟] for iPod. (Because Apple writes "iPod" and "iPad" in Roman characters, even on their Korean website, it's not entirely clear that that's the official spelling.)

By the way, for those naysayers who think an apparent lack of Korean language support means Apple won't be rolling out the iPad at the same time — or nearly the same time — as the rest of the world, it would appear that Apple Korea is making a big deal about the iPad in South Korea as well. Just as with the US store, it is the prominently displayed opening of the Apple Korea website, and there's a bunch of information on the iPad within the site.