Apple Shipping iPad to Nine More Countries in Late May

Beginning May 28, Apple will begin offering its iPad to nine more countries, including Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland, and the UK. And effective immediately, anxious would-be iPad customers residing in each of those countries can put their pre-order in through Apple's website, the company from Cupertino announced today.

Like it or not, the iPad has been a runaway success so far, with over 1 million units already sold in the US alone. Apple may not have anticipated such high demand, as evidenced when the company delayed the International release of its tablet in order to fulfill US orders.

According to Apple, iPad customers have already downloaded over 12 million apps from the App Store. In addition, iPad owners are spending at least some of their time reading electronic books and have downloaded more than 1.5 million ebooks from the new iBookstore, Apple said.

Those are pretty impressive numbers, which we expect will balloon once the iPad starts shipping around the world. Following the limited International launch in May, Apple will release the iPad to several more regions in July, including Austria, Belgium, Hong Kong, Ireland, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, and Singapore. Pricing and pre-order plans for these additional countries have yet to be decided, Apple said.