Apple preps e-commerce site for iPad 2 launch

Friday, March 4, 2011 - 09:06 by Mike Price

Apple launched the iPad 2 this week and in preparation it closed its e-commerce site so that it could get all the necessary functions in place to deal with the influx of orders for the new tablet, which is set to be released in the UK on March 25th.

Across the world, the store was taken offline, temporarily preventing any consumers from carrying out safe shopping online via Apple's official outlet.

A message on the site said that it would return soon and identified the fact that several major updates were being applied in the downtime.

Originally, it had been speculated that along with the iPad 2, a white version of the iPhone 4 would finally be made available from the tech firm. Sadly this did not come to pass, but fans of white Apple products will be pleased to see that the iPad 2 is being made available in white from its launch.

With the Apple Store back online now there is currently no way to pre-order the iPad 2. However, users will be pleased to see that the original iPad, launched last spring, is being given a significant price drop of around £100.

This brings the base Wi-Fi only 16GB model down to just £330, which is equal to many laptop computers and could help Apple shift serious amounts of old stock before the new generation of the iPad arrives.

Apple not only sells its products through its own store, but also through thousands of other portals and retailers, allowing users to get cut price deals if they use the tools of safe shopping online.

It is worth remembering that the launch of a new Apple product is usually greeted with glee by cybercriminals and fraudsters, so beware spam and fishing sites popping up in the coming weeks to try and dupe you out of your hard earned money.