iPad pre-orders begin March 12th, launches April 3rd

Straight from the horses mouth, Apple has announced the availability of the iPad.

Apple® announced that the Wi-Fi models of the new iPad will be available in the United States on Saturday, April 3, and Wi-Fi + 3G models will be available in late April. In addition, all models of iPad will be available in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the UK in late April.

More importantly, on March 12, customers in the United States will be able to pre-order both Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi + 3G models from Apple's online store (www.apple.com) or reserve a Wi-Fi model to pick up on Saturday, April 3, at an Apple retail store.

I'll definitely be taking the latter route next week, but I wonder how fast they'll run out of stock.