With a matter of days to go until Apple’s new iPad hits stores, retail behemoth Tesco has surprised many, including itself, in offering pre-orders of the 64GB Wi-Fi + 4G model for just £49.99, a whopping £610 cheaper than the tablet’s retail price.

Blaming a glitch in its website, Tesco Direct briefly offered the cut-price new iPad online yesterday with hundreds of online hopefuls flocking to the site to snap up the upcoming tablet at a budget price with the frantic demand causing the website to crash.

‘We always look to offer our customers unbeatable value but unfortunately this is an IT error that is now being corrected,” a Tesco spokesperson said in response to the low price new iPad offering.

Although hundreds of orders were made at the mistaken price point, it is expected that Tesco will cancel all orders and provide customers with refunds after it suspended all transactions after it was made aware of the error.

News of the new iPad price oversight spread quickly on Twitter with Tesco Direct and the company’s slogan ‘Every Little Helps’ trending on the social media site as the too-good-to-be-true offer became public knowledge. Tesco has since corrected the pricing error with the new iPad now listed at £659.99 ahead of its official release this Friday, March 16th.

Were you one of the many to try and buy a budget £50 new iPad? Have you received any feedback from Tesco be it positive or negative? Let us know via the T3 Twitter and Facebook feeds.

Via: DailyMail