Tesco is blaming an IT error for advertising the new iPad 4G 64GB model on its online retail platform for just £49.99. And the supermarket giant has stated that anyone ordering Apple's new toy at that price will not be getting the new tablet.

A spokesman for Tesco said: "We like to offer our customers unbeatable value, but unfortunately this is an IT error that is currently being corrected."

Tesco Direct's terms and conditions state: "If, by mistake, we have under priced an item, we will not be liable to supply that item to you at the stated price, provided that we notify you before we despatch the item to you. In those circumstances, we will notify the correct price to you so you can decide whether or not you wish to order the item at that price."

Tesco has previous when it comes to this sort of thing, with a few high-profile tech price errors already under its belt. In 2007 it mistakenly put an Xbox 360 bundle up for sale on its website for £33.24 and in 2011 the retail giant withdrew its offer of the new Nintendo 3DS for £157.60 - £40 cheaper than anywhere else at the time - admitting it had made a "pricing error".

And while we at Pocket-lint aren't about to accuse Tesco of concocting these errors to gain publicity, Peter Bowles, Creative MD at PR agency Dynamo PR, is happy to.

"Tesco Direct mysteriously dropping the price of this month's hottest Apple gadget is clearly a blatant PR stunt," he told us. "Unfortunately for Tesco it has tried this same trick one too many times now and consumers have noticed the same pattern. It would be a better stunt if it had the decency to honour the price drop for the few lucky customers to get it at that price.

"Its thriftiness in not sticking to this agreement has meant that this stunt has back-fired and possibly annoyed thousands of people who will now be searching around to turn off Tesco Direct email alerts. Perhaps Tesco is in need of a more original and honest idea to drive customers to their site now?"

Indeed. The iPad's real price, in case you're wondering, is £659 for the 4G 64GB model.