Deceased Chinese Have Burning Desire For iPad 2

While many consumers have been dying to get their hands on an iPad 2, other customers are landing the devices long after they are dead.

With the Qingming festival at hand, Chinese families in Malaysia are snatching up paper copies of Apple's newest device. Apple's newest tablet is joining replicas of LCD televisions and expensive sports cars as the latest gift to the dead, Reuters reports.

By burning the replicas, celebrants honor their dead ancestors, who they believe will receive the gifts in the afterlife. The popularity of expensive gifts like the iPad is a departure from more traditional gifts like clothing and money, which many Chinese see as more essential.

But celebrants looking to gift their deceased relatives with the iPad 2 have been frustrated as supplies of the paper replicas have dwindled. Similar to the supply constraints facing the actual iPad 2, shop owners have struggled to fulfill the demand for paper copies of the tablet. Most have only been able to offer customers replicas of the original iPad, which customers are less interested in.