Apple Store employees could be the first civilians to touch the mythical iPad tablet device. The iPad is set to arrive Mar. 10 in Apple Stores for employee training. Television commercials for the iPad should begin airing by mid-March with sales of the Wi-Fi iPad happening by the end of this month, a Tuesday report claims.
The Examiner cites a Southern California Apple Store manager who wanted to remain anonymous. A 3G version of the iPad will appear in late April or May, according to the report.
Additionally, it seems Apple fans who camp out to await the iPad’s sales with receive more than a feeling of pride for being first in line. The report says early birds will receive a “special gift.”
Although March sales had been announced when the iPad was first unveiled, a recent report that production problems could cause a delay prompted a stir among consumers eagerly awaiting the tablet device. Earlier this week, an analyst said the iPad’s chief supplier was experiencing a “manufacturing bottleneck” that could potentially derail the product’s March sales.
Ed Sutherland is a veteran technology journalist who first heard of Apple when they grew on trees, Yahoo was run out of a Stanford dorm and Google was an unknown upstart. Since then, Sutherland has covered the whole technology landscape, concentrating on tracking the trends and figuring out the finances of large (and small) technology companies.
