I just got a text from SoftBank gently reminding me that my beloved carrier is currently running a subsidy program for Apple iPads called iPad for Everybody – in the same vein as the iPhone for Everybody campaign started three years ago – at “startling prices now only!” If you get a 3G iPad from SoftBank, SIM lock and all, SoftBank will discount 2,430 JPY from your monthly contract charges in return for a 26-month contract – which brings the monthly device payments of the smallest capacity model (16GB) to a grand total of 0 JPY. Being able to provide such a generous subsidy – after which they don’t even award you for staying on for two whole years by, say, lowering your data and voice rates – by way of domestic SIM-locking is apparently something to be proud of now.

The SMS ends with a reminder that the campaign ends on the 28th of February, 2011, after which – I will bet money, based on past observations – they will announce a two-month-long extension “because of popular demand.”