A Thai friend of mine asked me for advice on an ipad mini, I told her yeah, just get it, thinking there really is not much that can go wrong with that. So she

- Went to istudio, where they only had the 32 in stock, not the 16

Then to the shop around the corner where they had a 16 but...

- She paid more for the device than the official Apple price

- Is this an original cover? "Yes but I give you 500 baht off" - ended up with a crappy fake cover

- "You need a screen protector for that" - ended up with a useless piece of plastic on her screen that cost 350 baht and makes the screen less vivid.

So its easy to buy an iPad when you know how...

i bought my one in True Shop ... if the apple outlets does not have any, better get it at a big place,

my experience is the same ... most of this sellers moving boxes in the cheapest possible way

quality and service (what makes Macintosh Products great) are not really somethings anyone does care arround here.

It's easy enough to get the Apple Store price on any iPad you like from:

http://store.apple.com/th

But no iPad comes with a cover, not even a crappy fake one.

In the US you can get a really fake IPAD

http://www.wxii12.com/news/Woman-says-iPad-she-bought-at-Walmart-was-fake/-/9678112/19109166/-/14am46r/-/index.html

Buyer beware- it may be on its way to LOS.

I agree with Bubba, bought mine from the Apple Store online, shipped direct from the factory in three days.

It's easy enough to get the Apple Store price on any iPad you like from:

http://store.apple.com/th

But no iPad comes with a cover, not even a crappy fake one.

Talking about the cover (which dosn't cover the bottom) (no pun intended),I bought one for £40,later I discovered far better quality ones (which I bought) for a mere £7 on Ebay.

PS Watch out for Ipad upgrades to free games,which start as a free game,until your children decide to upgrade and have to pay for it,which does not need your password if you click on BUY, to verify,if your children are already playing the game,

But not all of the games..... beware!

I think you can disable in game purchases in the restrictions section of the settings menu.

Be interested to hear from other more savvy posters if this works in all cases.

http://www.apple.com/asia/reseller/apr/th-list.php

I think iStudio is now matching the http://store.apple.com/th/ prices. I seem to remember that they (iStudio) charged a premium (not VAT per se), but maybe my memory is going.

I brought back an iPad 4 16/WiFi only from the U.S. last week after a quick trip; I went up to (sales tax free) NH and got it for $499 all in - for a Thai neighbor. The savings was pretty minimal, maybe 1,500 THB?

If I wanted a unit now I might opt for an iStudio store, but I am in Bangkok where there are ~ 20 stores. If I couldn't find what I wanted I'd order from the store on-line. Too much dreck in the other channels.

Not sure, but there are some rumblings that due to much higher component costs the miniPad 2 (with retina display) may have a slightly higher MSRP than the current miniPad 1. But they may also bracket the current MSRPs above and below, with the 2 and 1?