A man tries out Apple’s new iPad after its launch event in San Francisco, California, the United States, Jan. 27, 2010. ©Xinhua

BEIJING, Sept. 14 — Apple Inc. plans to begin official sales of its iPad tablet computer this Friday in China, the company announced on Monday.

According to a Wall Street Journal report, the Wi-Fi models of the iPad will be available to customers through two Apple stores in China and through authorized resellers.

The beginning of the sales will start on Friday at 10 a.m., according to the newspaper.

The iPad’s price will be higher in China than in the United States. It will charge from 3,988 yuan (about 590 U.S. dollars), for the 16-gigabyte iPad, to 5,588 yuan (about 827 U.S. dollars), for the 64-gigabyte model, the newspaper said.

The prices of the two models in the U.S. are 499 and 699 U.S. dollars respectively.

Before this users in China had been buying iPads brought into the country by traders on much higher prices. The Wall Street Journal said they run as much as 1,000 U.S. dollars.

The iPad first went on sale in the U.S. on April 3 this year, and became available internationally in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and Britain on May 28.

On June 21, Apple announced it had sold three million iPads worldwide. 

On Xinhua Web site: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/sci/2010-09/14/c_13493792.htm

Ahead of Tuesday’s start of Computex trade show in Taipei, Asustek said its new device will be on sale in the first quarter next year.

The touch-screen tablet PC will use Microsoft’s Windows 7 operating system and Intel Corp.’s Core processor, according to Asustek.

“We looked at how we could best address the needs of users from all walks of life, and I believe this is the product,” said Asustech Chairman Jonney Shih.

Asustek was also working with Intel and Microsoft to push out its own version of an application store, trying to beef up their software offerings to compete with Apple, Shih said.

Asustek will sell a 10-inch Eee Pad for 399 to 449 U.S. dollars. No price tag was given for a 12-inch model.

Last week, the world’s second largest PC vendor Acer unveiled a 7-inch touch-screen tablet that runs on Android, an operating system distributed by Google. 

On Xinhua Web site: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/sci/2010-06/01/c_13327306.htm

The video posted on the popular video-sharing website YouTube shows the 499-dollar device being dropped on the floor, stamped on, thrown, and smashed with a baseball bat.

More than 500,000 people have watched the clip since it was posted online Saturday, the day when iPad made a market debut in the U.S.

According to The Los Angeles Times, the video, titled “Brand new iPad getting smashed by a baseball bat”, was made by Justin Kockott, a 19-year-old high school student.

“I wanted to be the first one to do it before other people did it,” Kockott was quoted by the newspaper as saying, “it was just something to do.”

But Kockott denied holding a grudge against Apple, saying, “I do not at all hate Apple. I love Apple, actually.”

Apple reportedly has sold more than 300,000 iPads on the first day of its availability. 

On Xinhua Web site: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/odd/2010-04/06/c_13239699.htm