Although it seems hard to believe, over 200.000 iPad 3 tablets would have been imported into China from Friday until now. The figure represents almost 10% of the total number of tablets sold worldwide by Apple to date, and 200.000 of them would have arrived in the Chinese city of Shenzen alone. Cities like Beijing or Shanghai would have received iPad tablets in the last few days, but no one could calculate how many tablets arrived there. For the time being, the iPad 3 tablet is not available for purchase in China, but that did not stop the Chinese from pre-ordering the tablet in the USA, the country from which most units would have been imported.
It's only been four days since Apple launched the new iPad in 10 markets worldwide, but already Chinese media outlets are reporting that some 200,000 gray market devices have been smuggled into Shenzhen, a city bordering Hong Kong. Those importing devices from the US are reportedly pocketing around $20 per device, that's opposed to $12.50 for those that make the more common route over from Hong Kong. The final price that each gray market seller puts on the devices varies, largely due to supply and demand, but initially impatient Chinese consumers itching for the new iPad may need to stump up as much as $1,580 (10,000 RMB). Over time that price is expected to drop to some $80 (500 RMB) above the official sale price, which varies based on memory and Wi-Fi/LTE connectivity. The estimate of 200,000 does not represent the total number of gray market iPads in China, as it does not include supply into other cities, such as Beijing and Shanghai.
Chinese manufacturers would earn around $20 for each iPad 3 tablet sold, and at 200.000 units we are talking about a huge profit. The number of tablets imported there is very high and there are chances that an extra zero has been passed somewhere, even if at the moment China is one of the most important sales markets for the Apple company. Leaving aside the number of units, it is interesting that the iPad 3 tablets are manufactured in the Foxconn factories in China, but the Chinese manufacturers import them from other countries because Apple refuses to sell them there for now.
