Apple marks down original iPad to $399

Want an iPad for $100 less then you could get it yesterday? Following the announcement of the iPad 2 today, which will be available starting at $499, Apple has reduced the starting price of the original iPad to $399.

That will score you the WiFi-only iPad with 16 gigabytes of memory. Other models of the original iPad have also been marked down by $100. The highest-end 32GB 3G iPad is now a mere $729.

The news is a sign that the original iPad is not long for this Earth. Apple likely wants to sell out of its iPad stock as quickly as possible so that consumers will only have the iPad 2 to choose from.

At $399, the original iPad is a good deal if you don’t care about the iPad 2’s new features, like its dual cameras, dual-core processor, and impossibly thin design. If you’d rather wait for the new model, Apple says it will be available on March 11. It’s unclear when (or if) Apple will make the iPad 2 available for pre-order, but we’ll let you know if that happens.