In China, iPad Is Spelled iPed. Oh Wait, They’re Different Products?

As the iPad goes international today, the Asian market will be faced with a choice of two very similarly named options: the United States’ iPad or China’s new product, the iPed.

According to a TBS news special as reported by Kotaku, the iPed is on sale in Shenzhen, China. Why go to Shenzhen besides the iPed? To visit the Foxconn plant, which “just so happens” to be the manufacturing site for the iPad and the iPhone.

At a distant glance, or at a slightly closer glance when I’m not wearing my glasses, the products in packaging look exactly the same, but upon further, much closer inspection, the iPed does at least say iPed on it.

The manual, on the other hand, says APad, which also happens to be the name of the protagonist in China’s epic whaling novel, Moby Deck.

Name disparities aside, there are legitimate differences between the two products. The iPed is heavier and it run’s Google’s Android operating system. The biggest distinction for some people? The iPed costs just over 100 U.S. dollars, while the iPad is going for just over 530.

Copied tech has always been a bit of a nuisance, but that price difference is really astounding, especially in the middle of such a phenomenon. Unless someone finds a fatal flaw with the iPed fast, there could be some real intense tablet competition.

For reference, here are the two side by side:

And here’s the news report, which you may not be able to understand if you don’t speak Japanese, but the visuals for which tell a good chunk of the story:

(Via Kotaku)