iPad UK Release and Pricing – Brit Tax Bumps the Apple Prices Again!

If you’re here in the UK and have been patiently awaiting news of when you can grab your iPad – the official day is 28 May.

That’s the good news. Now, brace yourself for the not-so-good-news.

Apple says the 16GB, 32GB and 64GB Wi-Fi models will sell for £429, £499 and £599 respectively. The 16GB, 32GB and 64GB Wi-Fi and 3G models will sell for £100 more which bumps them up to £529, £599 and £699 respectively.

As usual we get stung by Brit tax – The US entry-level 16GB iPad with Wi-Fi sells for $499 minus sales tax, which varies from state to state. If you take off VAT from the price of the same UK model the £429 price tag is lowered to £365. That £365 works out as around $536, which is $37 (£25) more than the actual US pricing for this iPad model. So not too bad for that.

It gets more painful when you climb up the range though folks. Start looking at the top-of-the-range 64GB iPad with Wi-Fi and 3G in the states and you’d need to punch in your PIN to the tune of $829 (£564) before sales tax. In the land of the pound the very same iPad before VAT will hit you for £595 ($873). So we end up paying an extra £30 more than our US cousins.

Some of you might say that an extra £30 isn’t worth crying about when you’re spending over £500 – but do you agree? Why should we in the UK pay more?