O2 iPad charges higher in Ireland

O2 will be charging its Irish customers 40% more than those in Britain for the daily use of the Apple iPad.

Ahead of the much anticipated Irish launch of the iPad this week, the mobile operator released its tariff figures for Ireland yesterday.

The iPad, which is a touch-screen tablet computer, will hit Irish stores on Friday with prices starting at €499. It will be available through the Apple store and authorised Apple resellers.

The iPad is designed for browsing the internet, watching movies and reading e-books. It also allows users to send and receive email, and play games.

O2 will charge €3.97 a day for 500MB worth of data while in Britain it charges £2 (€2.36) for the same package.

An O2 spokesman said the British market is “significantly larger” than the Irish market, giving British mobile operators greater scope for economies of scale. “O2 Ireland’s daily data price plan for the iPad is extremely competitively priced when compared with other offerings in the marketplace here,” he said.

On the monthly data plan, however, prices are more competitively priced when compared with Britain. For 3GB of data O2 charges British customers £15 per month (€17.70), while O2 customers in Ireland can avail of 5GB of data each month for €19.90.

Apple has sold more than three million iPads since its introduction in April. Within 28 days, it had shipped more than one million of the devices, selling only in the US.

Also yesterday, O2 confirmed the iPhone 4 will be available at Irish stores from July 30. It is expected that Vodafone and 3 Mobile will start selling the smartphone around this time.