IPads in India Fetch $2,250 as Apple Fans Refuse to Be Patient

April 13 (Bloomberg) -- Anthony Agius says his decision to pay A$2,500 ($2,300) to travel to New York from Melbourne to buy 20 iPads is something only fellow Apple Inc. fans will fully understand.

“Any sane, rational person shouldn’t do it,” said Agius, 25, who edits a Web log about Apple products. “Some of my friends, who I wasn’t able to get an iPad for, are in pain right now.”

Agius’s passion and the frustration of his friends are shared by technophiles from Mumbai to Germany. The company will begin sales outside the U.S. later this month, though Apple Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs hasn’t given an exact date.

Amit Jain has capitalized on that uncertainty. Jain, who owns an electronics shop in Mumbai, said he sold five 64- gigabyte iPads for 100,000 rupees ($2,250) each as of April 7 after they reached India through the so-called gray market, or unofficial distributors. That’s triple the $699 the touch-screen tablet computer retails for in the U.S.

“We have customers who are willing to buy,” said 30 year- old Jain. “So we maintain our margins.”

The iPad will be available in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the U.K. in late April, Apple said March 5. The Cupertino, California-based company sold more than 450,000 iPads in less than a week after its introduction, Apple’s Jobs said April 8.

Outside the U.S.

Consumers outside the U.S. will account for almost half of iPad customers this year, according to Brian Marshall, an analyst at Broadpoint AmTech Inc. in San Francisco, who predicts a total of 4 million of the touch-screen devices will be sold worldwide by year-end.

“The international component for the iPad will be important,” Marshall said in a telephone interview. “This is going to be a wildly successful product.”

Listings for iPads on EBay Inc.’s Web site surged fivefold in the week ended April 3 as early buyers in the U.S. targeted consumers who can’t yet buy the device in their home countries. One purchaser from the U.K. paid $5,500, more than 10 times the $499 asking price for the least-expensive iPad, EBay said.

Apple may sell 7.1 million iPads worldwide in 2010 and double sales to 14.4 million next year and 20.1 million in 2012, researcher ISuppli Corp. said this month. The estimates are conservative and factors such as “swift feature enhancements” may help sales exceed its initial projections, ISuppli said. Sales in North America will account for most iPad shipments in 2010, ISuppli said.

“While non-U.S. sales will contribute a decent amount when you aggregate all of the other regions, the primary driving force will be U.S. sales,” said Francis Sideco, an analyst at El Segundo, California-based ISuppli.

Apple rose 2.5 percent in the five trading days after the U.S. release, compared with a 1.4 percent gain in the S&P 500 index.

Willing to Wait

Not all Apple fans are willing to pay a premium to have an iPad early. Claire Espinoza, 41, who works in marketing in London, plans to wait.

“It’s a very slick-looking device and I’d love to have one,” Espinoza said. Still, “I’ll wait until more people have them and any bugs are worked out.”

Apple began selling three of the six iPad versions it plans to offer, with first buyers getting models that connect to the Web via Wi-Fi. IPads that support so-called third-generation mobile-phone networks will go on sale in the U.S. later this month.

Hong Kong, Germany

Aggole Leung, 35, a graphic designer in Hong Kong and self- professed “big fan” of Apple products, said he ordered one through the www.bundlebox.com Web site, which enables customers overseas to buy products in the U.S., paying about HK$4,000 ($515) including shipping cost.

“I think it will be a hit here,” said Marcel Pimentel, 40, a preschool teacher in Germany who has used other Apple products including the iPod Nano. He said he’s not concerned about the iPad’s release date in the country “as long as they provide it.”

In Mumbai, Jain, the electronics store owner, is in no hurry to have the iPad widely available in India.

“We have the ability to get the product anyway,” said Jain who has a colleague in the U.S. to buy it for him. “The hype will sell.”

He said he had 30 customers waiting for the next shipment.