International Apple retail stores will be opening their doors an hour earlier than usual this Friday, May 28th, for the official launch of the iPad outside the US. By opening the stores at 8:00am rather than 9, hopefully international iPad customers won’t be met with the queues US customers endured. Engadget notes that UK customers can also hit up PC World and Currys outlets to try and get their hands on the device this Friday.

The international iPad launch will include 9 countries initially including Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the UK. The international iBooks app has also been launched today in preparation of the launch this Friday, however selection is limited to free books as of right now.

If you haven’t already preordered your iPad, you will probably want to wait to see if you can get one this Friday as preorders from Apple.com stores are now listed as shipping June 7^th.  However, those that placed their preorder before May 12^th (when the shipping dates changed) can still expect to receive their device on May 28^th.

[via Engadget]