Anyone has any idea when it will be sold in Taiwan (officially). why is the iphone 4 here but not the ipad. It’s in Singapore, HK, Japan but not Taiwan and they make them here( i know china but by Foxconn).
I’m not interested in the grey market(Too Pricey).
[quote=“andyiphone”]Anyone has any idea when it will be sold in Taiwan (officially). why is the iphone 4 here but not the ipad. It’s in Singapore, HK, Japan but not Taiwan and they make them here( I know china but by Foxconn).
I’m not interested in the grey market(Too Pricey).[/quote]
not too sure about that mate but according to the local news, Apple submitted their application to the NCC (National Communications Commission) in August and it is still being reviewed. Once it has been approved for use in Taiwan, i imagine the release date will follow quickly. Local media reports that it could be as early as October, but it may be delayed to coincide with the launch of the 4.2 OS which supports more keyboards, as traditional chinese input currently isn’t an option for the ipad.
Per WaltzingMedia, it’s at least November when 4.2 and the traditional character keyboard is released. The things have been selling gangbusters also, so the delay here may be longer still if they are production-constrained and need to get stock to regions that have steeper seasonality during Christmas.
If it’s selling in HK, how do they type in traditional there? Just curious.
from Apple’s HK website:
Languages
Language support for English, French, German, Japanese, Dutch, Italian, Spanish, Simplified Chinese, Russian
Keyboard support for English (U.S.), English (UK), French (France, Canada), German, Japanese (QWERTY), Dutch, Flemish, Spanish, Italian, Simplified Chinese (Handwriting and Pinyin), Russian
Dictionary support for English (U.S.), English (UK), French, French (Canadian), French (Swiss), German, Japanese, Dutch, Flemish, Spanish, Italian, Simplified Chinese (Handwriting and Pinyin), Russian
HK
More English speakers/readers
More Expats
Prolly they just write in English or use it as a consumption device?
You can use a web-based input system if you’re desperate.
I doubt Apple is waiting on the traditional keyboard. The iPad will sell in Taiwan regardless and traditional keyboard will be added with a software update anyway. There just isn’t a market in Taiwan as large as other places… like Hong Kong. That’s why many things arrive in Taiwan late, or can’t be purchased at all in Taiwan, when other smaller places like Hong Kong or Singapore have them.
Was in Hong Kong recently, and the Apple Reseller store at IFC was packed, and saw 8 iPads purchased within the few minutes I was in the store. With more people in the queue.
According to the Taiwan Today news website:
“The National Communications Commission greenlighted the sale of Apple Inc.’s iPad Oct. 11. Chen Tzu-sheng, head of the NCC’s Technologies Administration Department, said the tablet computer has cleared all regulatory proceedings governing telecommunication terminal equipment. “The purpose of inspections is to minimize the risk of the device exploding and ensure that its electromagnetic waves are within safety limits,” he explained. Local retailers expect to see the product hit the market later this month at the earliest, and demand is already piling up, they added.”
taiwantoday.tw/ct.asp?xItem= … ctNode=445
hopefully the release will happen soon!!
from today’s China Post:
Updated Thursday, October 14, 2010 11:55 pm TWN, By Alan Fong, The China Post
Apple secretive on iPad Taiwan launch date
Apple has yet to announce its plan for launching its tablet computer iPad in Taiwan or when it will make an announcement, employees at the Taipei office of the company said yesterday – five days after the island’s communication regulator approved the sale of the product.
The National Communications Commission (NCC) said on Friday, Oct. 8 that the radio frequency technologies such as Wi-Fi, 3G and Bluetooth in both the Wi-Fi (No. A1219) and Wi-Fi+3G (No. A1337) models of the iPad had passed the commission’s telecommunications terminal equipment inspections.
“The NCC has completed the required inspections and the products can now be sold in Taiwan,” Lo Chin-hsien (羅金賢), deputy director of the NCC’s technologies administration department, told The China Post.
Apple has not released its iPad sales plan in Taiwan, employees at its Taipei office told The China Post. The China Post has been unable to reach Apple’s spokesperson in Taiwan.
Efforts to reach the spokesperson were redirected by Apple’s Taipei office to a Taiwanese public relations firm serving the technology giant. The PR firm told The China Post that an official response has to come from a person outside Taiwan and will not be available at short notice.
Apple has been known for its secretive approach on releasing information or even confirming if the launches will take place at all. Apple licensed service providers in Taiwan such as Youth (優仕) and Studio A as well as major domestic consumer electronics retailer Tsann Kuen (燦坤) told The China Post that they had yet to receive any news on the iPad from Apple and are therefore not making plans to distribute the product.
“Until we are informed by Apple, there is nothing we can do,” an employee at a Studio A store told The China Post.
An employee at Apple retailer Youth told The China Post that he expected sales to begin next month when an upgrade of the iPad’s operating system (OS) to iOS 4.2 will allow users to input traditional Chinese. The current OS provides input in Simplified Chinese only.
To announce the iPad’s sales too shortly before the launch will test the retailers and Apple’s capability to put in to place measures to sell the product smoothly, such as online pre-ordering arranged by local telecom carriers to sell the popular iPhone 4.
Although it has been on the market for six months since its U.S. release in April, the iPad is expected to attract a substantial number of consumers in Taiwan.
For now, vendors and consumers rely on parallel import, unauthorized import from other countries, to obtain iPads from nearby regions, such as Hong Kong and Japan, where the tablet computer had been released.
To get around local regulations banning the sale of parallel imported iPads (one is allowed to buy iPads and bring them back for his/her own use, but not to resell them), some vendors and online sellers in Taiwan had reportedly advertised NT$20,000-iPad casings for sale, which were actually the casings plus the iPads.
Buyers are also listing on the Internet their services to purchase iPads abroad and carry them back to Taiwan for a charge. Owners of these parallel imported iPads, however, are generally paying higher prices but receive less protection in return.