Apple’s iPad hits stores today amid fevered speculation over whether the gadget can meet expectations.

The iPad, which Apple chief executive Steve Jobs hopes will bridge a gap between smartphone and laptop, goes on sale across America from 9am.

Industry analysts and Wall Street are now waiting to see whether the touchscreen tablet will prove as successful and revolutionary as the company’s iPhone mobile and iPod music player.

The company has already received several hundred thousands in pre-orders and first-year sales are estimated to be between 4 million to 7 million.

Last night those wanting to be the first to buy the device started queuing outside a few of Apple’s 200-plus US outlets. Queues were shorter than for the launch of the iPhone three years ago, as the iPad has been available to pre-order since last month.

The lightweight device, which features a 9.7 inch touchscreen, is an attempt to fuse the best qualities of laptops and smartphones. It allows owners to access the internet, play video games and view a range of media from films to magazines.

Pricing ranges from $499 for a short-range Wi-Fi model to more than $800 for a 3G-enabled version.

Apple’s stock has risen steadily since the iPad was launched to much fanfare in January.

However some commentators have critisced the device as an ‘oversized iPhone’ lacking the processing power of a laptop and questioned whether it will be able to compete in either market.

Rival software giants Hewlett and Packard and Dell are also planning to launch tablet devices later this year.

On Thursday, two video-heavy apps — from Netflix and TV broadcaster ABC — showed up in the App Store for iPad, offering consumers software to watch hours of movies and TV shows.
That could take heat off Apple, which has been criticized for developing its iPad tablet computer without the ability to work with Adobe Flash, which powers most Web videos and animation.

After weeks of buildup, iPads hit stores at 9 a.m. Saturday. They will be sold out by “early afternoon,” predicts tech analyst Richard Doherty of Envisioneering Group. Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster estimates Apple will sell 200,000 to 300,000 iPads this weekend and 1 million in the quarter.

Lines could be long at Apple Stores as buyers get help setting up e-mail, adding software apps and moving data from computers to the iPad. Some university campus bookstores and Apple resellers, in addition to Apple Store and Best Buy, will be selling iPads.

When Apple introduced the iPhone in 2007, lines moved slowly, in part because customers had to activate their phones with AT&T. Not this time.

The iPad comes in three models — 16 gigabyte, 32 GB and 64 GB, for $499, $599 and $699. It accesses the Internet via public or home Wi-Fi networks. Three more models due out later this month will access the Internet via AT&T’s 3G wireless network. Prices: $629, $729 and $829. Monthly AT&T service plans are $14.99 for 250 megabytes of data or $29.99 for unlimited.

Charles Wolf, an analyst at Needham & Co., says the target audience for the iPad is young teens and adults, who would previously buy the iPod Touch. If Apple takes a hit on iPod Touch sales, that’s not a problem, he says. “The iPad has a higher price point and bigger profit margin.”

Apple says 1,000 new apps will be available Saturday for the iPad.

by USA Today

We’re yet to know what features the iPhone OS 3.2 SDK fourth beta has to offer. According to the MacRumors forum, the Camera tab the Photos App found in the third beta of SDK has been removed. Apple had released the third beta of iPhone OS 3.2 SDK for iPad on February 24, pulled it back and then later made it available after making some changes.

by techtree.com

Lenovo recently released its latest tablet PC — the Thinkpad X201 — and with it came strong words against the iPad and the recent wave of similar “slate” tablet devices. As reported by CNET, Lenovo said that it’s not developing a slate device because it’s customers simply don’t want it.

Keyboards have long been a selling point for Lenovo’s computers (something it inherited from when IBM was still making Thinkpads). according to the company, it was the lack of keyboards that turned its customers off of slate tablets. Lenovo’s Thinkpad line is particularly popular among business users, and they likely weighed in heavily when the company was looking for feedback on slate tablets.

The X201 is a convertible tablet that can be switched from functioning as a typical laptop, to a screen-only tablet, by rotating the device’s screen. Before the hype that led up to the iPad (and inadvertently created the slate tablet segment), convertible devices like the X201 were what tech geeks thought of whenever they talked about tablet computing. While they found uses in certain scenarios (the healthcare industry jumped on Microsoft’s “Tablet PC” platform way back in 2003), convertible tablets were either too under-powered, or too expensive, to become mainstream hits.

Convertible tablet PCs also run full versions of Windows — unlike the stripped down iPhone OS that the iPad is running, or Google’s Android OS (which other tablet manufacturers are considering). This can be both good and bad. The good: Business users don’t have to learn anything new about the OS, and it can also run all of the software they’re familiar with. The bad: It forces convertible tablets to operate with standard computing paradigms — basically, its operating system simply isn’t optimized for the workflow of a tablet.

The X201 retails for $1200 — more than twice as much as the $500 low-end iPad. Android tablets are aiming for an even lower price range. Eventually, it will make sense for Lenovo to put out its own slate, no matter what some of its hardcore customers think. And as Stan mentions below in the comments, Lenovo is pretty much there already with its IdeaPad U1 hybrid smartbook.

For now, Lenovo customers get the best of both worlds with the X201. It runs Intel’s new low voltage Core i7 CPU, and comes standard with 4GB of RAM — so it’s definitely powerful. And unlike past convertible tablets, the X201 features a capacitive touch screen — which makes it very finger friendly, and ready to compete with multi-touch slate tablets.

Display

• 9.7-inch (diagonal) LED-backlit glossy widescreen Multi-Touch display with IPS technology
• 1024-by-768-pixel resolution at 132 pixels per inch (ppi)
• Fingerprint-resistant oleophobic coating
• Support for display of multiple languages and characters simultaneously

Capacity

16GB, 32GB, or 64GB flash drive

Processor

1GHz Apple A4 custom-designed, high-performance, low-power system-on-a-chip

Wireless and Cellular

Wi-Fi model

• Wi-Fi (802.11 a/b/g/n)
• Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR technology

Wi-Fi + 3G model

• UMTS/HSDPA (850, 1900, 2100 MHz)
• GSM/EDGE (850, 900,1800, 1900 MHz)
• Data only
• Wi-Fi (802.11 a/b/g/n)
• Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR technology

Sensors

• Accelerometer
• Ambient light sensor

Size and weight

Location

• Wi-Fi
• Digital compass
• Assisted GPS (Wi-Fi + 3G model)
• Cellular (Wi-Fi + 3G model)

Battery and Power

• Built-in 25Whr rechargeable lithium-polymer battery
• Up to 10 hours of surfing the web on Wi-Fi, watching video, or listening to music
• Charging via power adapter or USB to computer system

Prices