Posts Tagged “Steve Job”

Apr 07 2010

The iPad Makes Aliyah – Sort Of

Posted by in gadgets, hi-tech, israel

As I predicted, and as my prediction has borne out, the iPad won’t be coming to Israel for a long time – officially, that is (they say maybe at the end of the year…). But thanks to some enterprising Israelis, you can get an iPad right now – a used iPad, to boot, even though the thing has been on the market for three days!

This miracle comes to you courtesy of Israel’s premier second-hand site, Yad-2, where you can buy used electronic equipment, TVs, cars, even apartments – and now, iPads! There are currently about two dozen iPads up for sale on the Yad-2 site, apparently purchased by enterprising Israelis (or their agents) when the thing went up for sale (I imagine that the iPads are currently sold out in retail stores, and shipping from Apple takes about two weeks at this point). The prices for these “used” iPads range between NIS 2800 for the cheapest 16GB version – $756, not too bad of a markup from the $499 it costs at Apple stores – to NIS 4,700 ($1,270) for the $699 64GB version. Expensive, but still cheaper than paying for a ticket to the States, taking a cab or train to the Apple store, standing on line, having lunch at some mall eatery, doing some “extra” shopping, and coming back home.

About the iPad itself I have nothing to say, since it has all been said by every talking head out there already. Suffice to say I’m very happy with my Macbooks and my smart phone, so I’m probably not going to be an iPad early adopter. But you never know.

I did, however, notice some interesting phenomena associated with the iPad that I would like to share. Were I in the market to buy one, I would usually buy an item like an iPad at Amazon, which has free shipping, no tax, and easy return policies. Right now, though, you can’t buy an iPad at Amazon – they’re not being offered there yet.

Or is “yet” the right term? Usually, Amazon usually takes pre-orders for every new gimcrack and gizmo (especially those from Apple) – but there’s not a hint of iPad availability, now or in the future, at Amazon. Is it because Apple is keeping iPads “in the family” – ie only at Apple retail stores and, I guess, at AT&T stores when the 3G version comes out (a la the iPhone) – or is it because Amazon is taking seriously the iPad’s potential to compete with, and probably eventually outsell, the Kindle?

Here’s something really interesting: The domain, ipad.com, is NOT owned by Apple! It instead belongs to, according to Alexa, one Martine Bejasa of South Fork, New Jersey, and is copyrighted by the Enero 6 Corporation. There is much speculation in the blogosphere on the nature of this Enero 6 (Enero is January in Spanish), with some attributing it to an in-joke by Steve Jobs, who has historically made some major Apple announcements on January 6. However, there really is no need to speculate; the New Jersey phone number of Mr/Ms. Bejasa is listed on his/her domain information page.*

A quick Google search of the name shows that Martine is a real person and has owned the iPad.com domain name since 2001. Considering that Apple owns all the other domain names associated with their products – iPod.com, iPhone.com, and Mac.com (but oddly, not Macbook.com), Mr/Ms. Bejasa could be in for a big Apple payday!

*NOTE – I checked the info on the actual Alexa page and it seems to have been changed. But I still get the original info -with the phone number – using my Alexa plugin for Firefox. Which means I could actually call Mr/Ms. Bejasa to clarify this – but I’m not such an iPad fanatic. If anyone wants to scoop the blogosphere, here’s your chance!