"Apple hasn't said if it will sell the iPad in China, but some local companies there have already started selling or planning rival tablet computers with Windows 7, the first version of the Microsoft OS to offer a core multitouch control option suited for such devices."

"Other Chinese vendors are taking orders for the iPad, planning to buy the device outside of China and informally take it back into the country before reselling it. The iPhone was similarly sold on the gray market in China long before its official release there late last year, and at least 1 million iPhones being used in China were not bought from official distributor China Unicom, according to analyst estimates."