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It’s official. For all those in China who were awaiting the launch of Apple’s iPad: the oversized gadget will hit mainland stores in a month, according to a state media report today.

China Unicom, the country’s second-largest phone operator, hopes that iPad sales will revive its flagging profits. So it won’t be pleased to see that a growing number of Chinese consumers are rushing to buy a knockoff version instead – the aPad, or China iPad.

More and more websites are offering a wide array of fake Apple products including several different sizes of China iPads. This morning the top search result on Reddit, a link aggregator, was an ad (later taken down) for China-iPad.cn, a website that describes itself as a “China ipad manufacturer and exporter”, devoted to selling knockoff Apple devices.

It’s no surprise that these guys are so well set up, they offer very competitive prices – an iPad look-a-like on the website is $132.99, in contrast to Apple original’s US price tag of $499.

Consider the above price against the proposed iPad price in China. According to MIC Gadget, Unicom will be offering the device at a higher price than its $499 US price. The official iPad will sell for 4200 yuan (about $617) for a 16GB Wi-Fi model, 5100 yuan ($749) for the 16GB 3G + Wi-Fi model.

It’s no wonder then that China Unicom’s hope that smartphones (and use of 3G data applications on these phones) would boost profits doesn’t seem to be working. In today’s FT, Kathrin Hille reports that with the telecom industry in China becoming increasingly saturated, smartphones are seen as key for mobile operators like Unicom to balance the low prices they continue to offer to China’s poorer rural population.

But given that the price of an Apple iPad is expected to be higher in China than it is in the US, can you blame anyone who isn’t rushing to storm the gates of the nearest Apple store? To top it off, if you’re in Beijing or Shanghai and want a smartphone but aren’t willing to buy a knockoff, you have yet another option. Take a vacation in Hong Kong, where the iPad is being offered at the cheapest price anywhere in the world.

All this might leave some wondering – with all the competition, might we see a cheaper iPad in China?

Related reading:
China’s gray market iPhone costs $1770 – Shanghaiist
Apple – In depth