I had a small wander about the Laos duty free area while I was there today. It was a bit limited as the electricity was cut, but there were torches aplenty about to light up the goods.
I spotted a mini i-pad, the first I had seen - I know know why it was the first as they are not even released by Apple yet...
http://www.addictivetips.com/hardware/c ... and-price/
They had ones on display in a neat fold up case with a keyboard in the front & a flap to keep the screen upright on a table. Might seem a bit of a strange idea, with the i-pad concept being all on 1 screen but I thought it worked quite well & seemed to fold up into a nice package that looked like it could stand being dropped.
The price for the 'set' was quoted at 5,500 baht, although I guess that is negotiable if cash is being shown...
One of the stores also had the same idea for the full sized i-pad as well, I gathered that the asking price for that was 10K, but don't quote me on that..
The 'bare' i-pad is currently selling in the Complex for 20K. That was not from the Apple shop though. I imagine that the only way to ensure that you are actually buying the genuine thing rather than a Chinese rip off is to buy from the Apple Shop, or direct online.
As the fake i-pad is using Android as the OS i don't think that 'add ons' (the most important reason most have for buying it) for the i-pad are likely to work with it. However alternative Android software is generally available as it is the OS that most of the i-pad competitors use.
There is quite a difference in the specs, but I have not seen any specs for the i-pad mini yet, so maybe not so different to that.
http://www.apple.com/ipad/specs/
