iPad app store goes international

At long last Apple has woken up to the fact there is a whole world outside the great US of A, and has started rolling out its iPad store internationally, albeit in rather piecemeal, half-baked fashion.
Until now it has been almost utterly impossible for non US resident iPad owners to get their fill of iApps, at least of the paid variety, with the store requesting a US based iTunes account complete with American credit card details.
Sure, there have been those who have managed to sneakily get around the issue by having US friends set up an account using an American credit card and then buying a plethora of gift cards for themselves, but it was all very convoluted and somewhat ridiculous.
Now reports are emerging that the UK, Belgium, Spain, Israel, France and New Zealand have all been blessed by the Dukes of Cupertino with iPad app access, although certain key apps are still purportedly unavailable.
The UK’s Register reports Apple’s own free iBooks and the paid apps in the iWork suite still aren’t available in the UK store, but that several newspaper apps including the Financial Times, Wall Street Journal and USA Today, are.
Despite the availability of iPad apps, however, Apple is not making it easy for app starved customers to find what they’re looking for, having not yet integrated the iPhone/iPad app separation section on the international app stores. So, be advised that you should know what exactly it is you’re looking for and whether it actually has an iPad version if you’re an international user.
Better late and half-baked than never, we suppose.