Buy an iPad in Beijing?

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Is iPad in demand in Beijing?

Are Chinese consumers interested in the gadget du jour of West’s chattering classes, the Apple iPad?

With this question in mind, yesterday I went to Beijing’s popular electronics and computing warehouse Buy Now (百脑汇). The Buy Now mall on the southern side of Chaoyangwai Dajie is a noisy place where salespeople almost yell in your face to tout their goodies. But yesterday at a Apple stall, I felt neglected.

The three guys behind the glass counter, were engrossed in playing a game on a iPad, and they were not very enthusiastic about my arrival. During the half hour I was there, asking questions, no other customers showed up.

They are not cheap: see the price comparison below (although note that you can usually bargain the price down a little at Buy Now)

iPad 16GB

4,900 yuan (or $715, compared to $499 on Apple’s U.S. website)

iPad 16GB, 3G enabled

7,100 yuan (or $1,039, $639 in U.S. market)

Finally, although there have been several reports on the Internet about shanzhai iPads, i.e. reverse engineered or copycat devices that look similar to the real thing, no one at Buy Now had any such gadget for sale.

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