iPads sold out

iPad versions of applications will come at a premium, but with the iPad now sold out even the most spendthrift Apple fans will have to wait.

Apple's iPad is already shipping to customers who pre-ordered early, to arrive before Easter. However, the initial manufacturing run has sold out and American visitors to the online store are being told they'll have to wait until April 12th to get the Wi-Fi version of the iPad. Those seeking built-in 3G, however, will have to hold on until "late April" - which applies to all iPads for non-Americans.

But once an iPad is in hand the Apple fan will no doubt rush to the iTunes store to stock up on farting noises and light sabre emulators. These will mostly cost around $10, as shown in this video on MacStories.

Browsing the iPad App Store: A Video [By @viticci] from Federico Viticci on Vimeo.

There are screenshots from App Annie, who reports that some applications will be available as a single version for both the iPhone and iPad, but others are charging distinctly more for the big-screen version.

$10 might be a reasonable price for an iPad application, and it makes sense for Apple to encourage a high price point. We'll be interested though to see how the company tries to prevent the iPad store being swamped with cheap cloned applications, as the iPhone store already is.

These clone applications are generated using application templates, populated with stuff either scraped from the internet or legitimately gathered. The problem is that the latter might be a valuable application, but the former is a waste of money, and buyers are left to judge which is which.

Apple has already started warning developers of clone applications that they should consider the value of their apps, and it seems likely that the iPad will expand the free-trial model that goes a long way towards weeding out the rubbish.

But we won't know for certain until next week, and it will probably be six months before we find out if iPad users are really willing to pay $10 per applications. ®