Apple Eats up Still Majority Pie of Global Tablet Shipment
Apple’s iPad has provided much of the leg for the global tablet market to march through incredible growth in the June 2012 quarter, gaining 77 per cent from the overall shipments of the gadget over the past 12 months. REUTERS

Apple recently released its next-gen tablet, titled the new iPad, which went on sale on 16 March, in the UK, US and eight other countries across Europe and Asia. A further 25 lucky countries will be able to flaunt the product in their markets on 23 March.

However, Apple is still to launch the product in China. It is, therefore, a little surprising that the Chinese media are reporting on new iPads being available in the grey market. Apparently there are already more than 200,000 iPads in the Shenzhen province, according to Tech in Asia. The devices are reportedly from Hong Kong and the US.

The report indicates that smugglers from Shenzhen, which borders Hong Kong, carry the new iPads in their luggage. Chinese immigrants claim many of the new iPads are being brought from the US, with a number of ethnic Chinese queuing up at Apple Stores in America. The purchased iPads are then passed on to the smugglers.

Apparently the initial purchasers of the iPads re-sell each iPad at a profit, which is surprisingly low - $20 in China and only $12.65 in Hong Kong. The final price set by each grey market seller varies due to supply and demand. The grey market price for a new iPad can be as high as $1,580. However, the price is expected to drop to about $80 over the retail price for each specific model, according to a report on The Next Web.

Meanwhile, the total number of iPads (listed above) does not represent the number of grey market iPads in China since it does not include the supply of new iPads to the other cities like Beijing and Shanghai, according to The Next Web.

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