Mexico, Austria, Ireland, and more: Get ready for the iPad!

As it begins to focus its attention to products other than the iPhone 4, Apple today has announced nine more countries that it will be begin shipping the iPad to later this week.

On July 23, Apple will officially add the following countries to its dossier for iPad shipments:

Austria

Belgium

Hong Kong

Ireland

Luxembourg

Mexico

The Netherlands

New Zealand

Singapore

All models of the iPad, including all capacities available in both Wi-Fi and 3G versions, will be available to all nine countries beginning this Friday. That brings the total number of countries with official iPad availability to 19.

Before Apple began shipping the device out to foreign countries, the international “black market” for iPads was huge, with some customers overseas paying over $1,000 for the $400 gadget. Now that it is easier to get the iPad in other countries, Apple has begun relaxing its very strict policies on iPad purchase limits in the US.