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BREAKING NEWS: ASUS has just announced its latest and greatest product, the so called “Eee Pad” (don’t ask us where that name came from) at the Computex Taipei trade show. The product will be in direct competition with the HP Slate and Apple iPad.

There are two models the Eee Pad will be released in, the EP121 (with a 12 inch screen, USB and Windows 7), and the EP101TC (which has a 10 inch screen and runs onWindows Embedded Compact 7).

The price for the Eee Pad is said to be $400-500 at launch, which will be slightly more expensive than an iPad. By the time this thing is actually brought to the market, it’s likely that iPad prices will be down from now, further widening the pricing gap.

Some also say that a 12 inch screen is too big. Users have described the iPad’s 10 inch screen as chuncky and not easily portable. Although ASUS is trying to advertise the Eee Pad as “small, light and sleek” it seems that it might be a fair bit heavier than the iPad (although we can’t be sure until we get our hands on a working prototype).

Also, the ASUS will only run Windows, and will not support functionality for Android or Chrome OS.

It is estimated that the Eee Pad will be launched in about 7 months from now.

EDITORS NOTE:

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A free iPad will be donated to one lucky participant in a new competition. The offer, which corresponds to Apple’s launching of the iPad worldwide, will be remained open until May 31st 2010.

Apple fans are encouraged to enter the competition here.

The iPad, Apple’s latest gadget, has already massively surpassed sales expectations and is difficult to find in retailers across the US. In fact, there are hundreds of thousands of fans who are prepared to pay far more than the retail price to get their hands on an iPad.

Apple fans who enter the free contest above have a chance of grabbing an iPad while all others struggle to find one available.

Naturally, prices of the iPad will fall to reasonable levels in a few months, and Apple retailers will have plenty of stock. But if you want one NOW, it sure isn’t easy. While initially met with scepticism, the iPad has lately been getting some great reviews.

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Apple’s iPad, released a few weeks ago in the US, is already selling out. People are finding it very difficult to find an Apple retailer that has any models in stock.

It’s not the first time we have seen things like this, of course. Consider when the Xbox first came out, or the launch of the Playstation 3. Stores would run out of stock in minutes. Some savvy people would line up for hours, buy several models, and sell them on eBay for a hugely inflated price.

There are several theories of why the iPad is in such short supply. Many speculate that Apple is doing it intentionally in order to create more demand, which is certainly possible, but it seems unlikely.

A more plausible possibility is that Apple in fact underestimated the sales of the iPad 3g. 1,000,000 iPad’s were sold in only 28 days. When the iPhone first came out, it took 74 days to reach that figure. The sales numbers have indeed been surprising, considering that there has been some fairly negative reactions to the iPad.

Finally, it could be that Apple is planning an international release of the iPad, and is saving its models to be shipped overseas.

What do YOU think is the reason for iPad’s selling out? Post a comment below.

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