iPad available in late March April 3

Apple had told us that one of the models of the new iPad would be available in late March, but now they're announcing a date of April 3. and they're taking pre-orders.

Well, I guess April is just March 2.0, right?

At any rate, if you're in South Korea, you're better off waiting for April 3 on the lunar calendar, because according to Apple's plans, the April 3 release date is for the US only. Furthermore, the "late April" release date that Apple is announcing is for Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland, and the UK.

No Korea, not yet.

But maybe that's a good thing: the later release means either that there are bugs in this thing that haven't been worked out yet but they're going to push through to get close to the originally announced release date anyway (the Microsoft model), or they found bugs or glitches but took the time to work them out (which is usually, but not always, the Apple model).

The Reuters article mentions industry analysts who are describing "supply constraints," which could be a third possibility. At any rate, would-be buyers in South Korea might want to wait to see how those across the big blue pond are faring with their fresh hot iPads before they fork over hundreds of thousands of won.

And the April 3 release is only the Wi-fi version. The 3G version won't be available in the US until late April. If Korea ends up having universal free wi-fi everywhere, you won't need the 3G version: even now with my iPhone, for large files (like a 50-minute podcast of "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me!") it tells me to connect either directly to my computer or to a wi-fi network; it won't download via 3G.

Whatever you decide to buy, here's a handy pricing chart, snagged directly from Apple's pre-order site: