Apple iPad goes on sale in UK

Apple’s iPad was finally on sale in the UK today after a delay due to the gadget’s popularity in the United States.

The eagerly-anticipated touch-screen computer allows users to send emails, read novels, draw pictures and play games.

It will go on sale from £429 (€506) for the basic version to £699 (€825) for a model with Wi-Fi and 3G network access.

Apple stores across the UK were opening an hour earlier at 8am to sell the iPad, with queues of shoppers expected overnight.

However the launch has been overshadowed by 11 suspected employee suicides at the Chinese factory which makes the iPad amid reports of oppressive conditions.

Apple said it would independently investigate the deaths at Foxconn, which also supplies electronic products for Dell and Hewlett-Packard.

Apple said in a statement: “We are saddened and upset by the recent suicides at Foxconn. Apple is deeply committed to ensuring that conditions throughout our supply chain are safe and workers are treated with respect and dignity.”

Apple was forced to push back its original late April UK launch date because of “overwhelming demand” for the iPad in the US.

The company’s website is already warning that iPad pre-orders made now will not ship until June 7.

Apple sold more than one million iPads in the US in the first 100 days after the April launch, making it a faster seller than the iPhone.

Gadget fans who queued all night outside Belfast’s Apple store today became some of the first people in Ireland to buy an iPad.

With the latest must-have item not expected to go on sale in the Republic of Ireland until July, would-be customers travelled north to be among the first to get their hands on the new touch screen computer.