Those geeks who’ve dreamt of having an iPad that runs on the Android operating system instead of the iPad operating system are in luck if they know how to get their hands on copyright violating products from China’s black market. The iPed, a name that adds insult to injury if ever there was one, which has been unearthed by trendhunter.com, leaves one to wonder just what repercussions Apple has outside the U.S. where it’s at the mercy of the copyright rules of the nation in which the product is being manufactured and sold. Of course wanting an iPad but wishing it ran the geeks-only open source Android operating system is about as nonsensically wasteful as buying a Mac just to run Linux on it instead – but then again, there are existing geeks who do just that, for reasons that no one but them will ever be able to understand.

Check it out after the break, it is in fact the Apad/iRobot.

The iPad finally goes on sale in Japan today. The country’s TV news have been covering the launch as well as another product on sale in nearby China: the iPed.

According to this TBS news report, the iPed is on sale in Shenzhen, China. Shenzhen is the location of the largest Foxconn plant, where the iPhone and the iPad are manufactured. The iPed comes packaged in a box that looks like the iPod.

But it says iPed.

Dramatic close up.

The instruction manual says APad, though. Go figure.

While it is slightly heavier than the iPad, the device is powered by an Intel chip and runs on Google’s open source operating system Android. But like the iPad, it is a multi-media device.

And is priced at the equivalent of ¥9,600 (US$105). The iPad is priced at ¥48,800 ($536) in The Land of the Rising Sun. The Japanese television reporters note that in China popular electronics are copied quickly.

And China is getting better and better at it. Apple, you better watch out. These guys are gonna eat your lunch. And one day, eat it better than you.

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