It appears that Apple may have placed a temporary embargo on iPad orders from corporate Australia, with iPad supplies starting to dwindle after the local launch of the hyped tablet device last week.

A source said their company had been told they were expecting a small but significant number of iPads to aid with application development work, but had been told there was an embargo on corporate orders.

An Apple spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but a number of stores around the nation have reportedly run out of certain iPad models already, especially the 3G models.

The Sydney Morning Herald has reported that Apple’s flagship Sydney store had already sold out of the 3G options, while its newly launched Bondi Junction store still had the Wi-Fi models in stock, but only had the 64GB model on the 3G side.

In addition, online pre-orders of the iPad earlier this month had already exceeded availability, with the first wave of iPads having shipped last week on 28 May, but the next way slipping to early in June. The source was not given an estimated time of arrival for when the iPad would be available to corporates.

At least one large corporate buyer — the Victorian State Government — has already flagged plans to buy a stack of iPads. On Friday Victorian Premier John Brumby announced the state would buy more than 500 of Apple’s iPad devices, to be distributed to eight schools in the state in a trial of the technology.

However the state may not run into problems with availability — as it plans to purchase only the low-end Wi-Fi model.

Image credit: Apple

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