Revealed: The iPad Store! Apple Withholding iPad Customs Papers?

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Here's a first glimpse at the Apple iPad app store—not too much of a divergence from the iPhone app store, there's an added "In the Spotlight" section to showcase highlights and selected apps. As we mentioned yesterday, iPad apps are slated to cost 200% to 500% more than iPhone app—"The iPad game Flight Control HD, for example, is listed for $4.99; the iPhone version costs $0.99. And the iPad game Flick Fishing HD costs $2.99 — $2 more than Flick Fishing for iPhone," Wired reports.

Boy Genius Report loves tracking packages and has speculated that Apple is purposely withholding customs clearance papers in order to prevent customers from receiving the iPad before the device's April 3rd drop-date.

Shipments of iPads are due to reach the U.S. tomorrow and the next day, and if this was a normal shipment, the packages would be delivered on April 1st, not April 3rd. But, they can’t pass through Louisville, KY (UPS’ main hub) before passing through customs clearance. Since it’s an international shipment, there’s no way around that. Because Apple is shipping these things in bulk (yes, bulk), the easiest way to do this is to have the merchandise pre-cleared when it leaves China with UPS’s service WorldEase. The interesting thing though, is that U.S. Customs has not received any clearance papers yet—a surefire way to completely control the shipments until the actual delivery date and 100% bypass any possible shipper mistakes.

· Browsing the iPad store [Vimeo]
· Video Gives a Glimpse Inside iPad App Store [Wired]
· Apple purposely withholding customs clearance papers for iPad shipments? [BGR]