Apple announced today that the iPad will be available in nine new countries this Friday. These include: Austria, Belgium, Hong Kong, Ireland, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand and Singapore.

All models of the iPad will be available through Apple retail stores and through authorized resellers. Currently, the iPad is available in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland, the UK and the US.

Apple says the iPad will roll out to many more countries later this year, and the company will announce availability and local pricing for these additional countries at a later date.

About a month ago, Apple announced that it had sold 3 million iPads in 80 days (since launch). "People are loving iPad as it becomes a part of their daily lives," said Apple CEO Steve Jobs.

The iPad has certainly been more well received than Apple’s other big product launch of the year – the iPhone 4, which got a less than favorable write-up from Consumer Reports, and has been the subject of the infamous "Antennagate" PR disaster. Last week, the company announced it would be giving away free cases for iPhone 4 owners, to fix the device’s reception problems.