articles - Why "the ipad" and not simply ipad

From what I've learned, special names don't get definite articles. (I should admit that the use of articles in English is very tricky) For example, we say Apple but not the Apple to refer to the company. But I've seen in many places people use "the ipad" to refer to the tablet produced by Apple. for example, in the sentece which I've taken from wikipedia "The iPad has two internal speakers reproducing left and right channel audio located on the bottom-right of the unit." Why can't we simply say iPad? Do product names always take definite articles.

Answer

Names of countable physical objects, including manufactured goods, customarily accept an article: I bought an iPhone for my sister-in-law, but she wanted the Samsung Galaxy S III instead.

The article is omitted if the subject is uncountable, e.g. She prefers Pepsi-Cola to Coke but She would rather have a [bottle of] Pepsi than a [bottle of] Coke.

In fact, quite a large proportion of names take articles, such as the names of

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  many public and academic organizations or institutions, particularly where a component of the name is by itself a common noun — He retired from the Seventh Fleet and consulted for the Department of State, and lectured at the University of Maryland on the Catholic Church in the United Provinces.

  
  


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  geographic features, with the exception of continents, most countries, most cities, most streets, most lakes, waterfalls, features where the type of feature is the second part of the name, and most individual mountains. Antarctica but the Antarctic; Botany Bay but the Bay of Bengal

  
  


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  some concepts and devices based on names — Doppler radar but the Doppler effect, Moore's Law but the Chandrasekhar limit

  
  


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  anything where The is always included as part of its full name — She met the Stig at a café in a village near the Matterhorn, on holiday from her job with The New York Times Company in the Netherlands.

  
  

Apple markets its products without articles, calling them simply iPad and not the iPad in their advertising materials. My personal speculation on this is that it is an attempt to elevate them in the imagination of the customer; it is not merely a product, but something whose name would not take an article, like a person, or a culture, or another planet.