MacRumors

Fortune reports on a new research note from analyst Katy Huberty at Morgan Stanley citing iPad suppliers now forecasting shipments of 8-10 million iPads for calendar year 2010, up from previous estimates of around 5 million. The report notes, however, that shipments are not necessarily equal to sales, as some of that production will remain in distribution channels at the end of the year. Consequently, Huberty maintains a sales estimate of 6+ million iPads for the year.

According to Huberty, investors who are bearish on the iPad say it lacks a "killer app." Apple's near-term market, she counters, is the sub-$800 notebook computer market (30 million units in the U.S. and 120 million units globally). Longer term, she expects the books, magazines, video and iPad-optimized apps currently in the works to broaden that market.

Over the shorter term March-to-May timeframe, suppliers are now reporting that they expect to ship 2.5 million iPads during the initial surge, up significantly from Huberty's earlier estimate of 750,000 through the end of June. Analyst reports earlier this month had reported some delays in early iPad production that would limit launch quantities, although it is unclear exactly what the source of the delays were and what the magnitude of their effect has been on unit quantities.

Huberty, a prominent tech industry analyst, had been noted for her bearish estimates on Apple's financial performance over the past several years, but has come around in recent months to issue several reports citing Apple's leadership position in the mobile Internet industry and offering strong "bull case scenarios" for Apple's future growth.

Apple today issued a press release formally confirming that the iPad will launch this Saturday in the U.S. Wi-Fi iPad models will be available in all 221 U.S. Apple retail stores and at "most" Best Buy locations beginning at 9:00 AM.

"iPad connects users with their apps and content in a far more intimate and fun way than ever before," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "We can't wait for users to get their hands and fingers on it this weekend."

Apple also announced that all customers making iPad purchases in its retail stores will receive free Personal Setup service, which includes assistance from Apple staff with setting up email accounts on the device, loading applications, and other tasks. Apple retail stores are also set to begin hosting iPad workshops this Saturday, offering customers ways to get more out of their devices.

Customers who pre-ordered Wi-Fi models have noted that their devices have begun shipping, although the orders are not expected to arrive until Saturday.

Apple has starting shipping iPads for delivery. Those who placed their orders in on the first day have started receiving shipping notices from the Apple Store.

Unfortunately, the early ship date does not necessarily mean that customers will receive their iPads before April 3rd. In the past, Apple has coordinated with UPS to hold early deliveries until launch day. The first Wi-Fi only iPads are to be delivered on April 3rd, 2010. 3G models will arrive several weeks later.

Online video provider Brightcove has announced that they will be officially supporting HTML5 video for their customers. Brightcove is the video platform for more than 1000 customers including high profile websites such as The New York Times and Time, Inc.

The move comes a week before the launch of the iPad which does not support Flash video which has traditionally been the vehicle for online video delivery.

"Our customers want to be able to deliver their video content to every screen without sacrificing the quality, interactivity and monetization capabilities they have come to expect from the Brightcove platform," said Jeremy Allaire, Brightcove chairman and chief executive officer. "The Brightcove Experience for HTML5 fills the gap between the current playback capabilities of the emerging standard and what our customers need to operate successful online video businesses."

The new HTML5 support comes at no additional cost to existing Brightcove customers. A list of existing customers is available on Brightcove's website and includes a large number of magazine publishers, newspaper publishers and broadcasters. It seems HTML5 has to be purposefully implemented by the customer sites as not all the same features have been deployed to Brightcove's HTML5 implementation. However, the company has a roadmap to deploy all the same features over time.

The New York Times and Time, Inc have been confirmed as launch partners taking advantage of HTML5 video and will be iPad-ready on launch day.

We've always maintained that the excitement behind the iPad has been the introduction of large screen multi-touch platform rather than a singular Apple-defined purpose. Over the weekend, we revealed that Filemaker's personal database application will be coming to iPad on launch day.

Here are a couple of other promising upcoming iPad apps that we've run across.

Mixr

Mixr is described as the "first ever professional DJ application for iPad." The multi-touch app features cross-fading, equalizing, cue, drang & drop tracks, and full effects such as delays and auto filter.

Mixrs turntables look and feel just like real the real thing. To mix your music, all you have to do is touch the vinyl records with your fingers. You can play it, stop it, run it backwards and even control the pitch and scratch! To manipulate the sound, simply rotate the vinyl with your fingers...

No word on a release date yet but more details from the developer's site.

iMockups

iMockups offers rapid creation of mock-ups, layouts and wireframes for web, iPhone and iPad projects. Designed for workflow sketches, the iPad-exclusive app includes resizable elements representing various user interface components. A video of the app in action is available here.

Endloop.ca reports that the application has been submitted to Apple already and should be available by iPad launch.

Apple's iPad Camera Connection Kit, which offers two adapters to allow users to transfer digital photos directly to their iPad via either USB or SD card, is now listed as shipping in late April.

The kit had been announced by Apple as part of the iPad launch in late January, but did not come available for pre-order earlier this month alongside other iPad accessories. The reason for the delay in making the kit available for order is unknown.

Other iPad accessories are showing a variety of shipping dates for new orders, with the standard dock and VGA adapter scheduled for April 3rd availability and the iPad case shipping in "mid April". The iPad keyboard dock is currently showing "late April" availability, while the power adapter is not shipping until May.

With the iPad launch just a week away, Apple appears to be running out of its initial supply of the devices as the company has pushed the expected shipping date for new Wi-Fi iPad orders to April 12th from the previous April 3rd date. Orders for Wi-Fi + 3G models continue to show a projected shipping date of late April.

Apple has also removed the iPad reservation program from its site. The program allowed consumers to reserve a Wi-Fi iPad for pickup at their local Apple retail store on the launch day of April 3rd. Customers with reserved iPads have been told to come to their retail location between 9:00 AM and 3:00 PM on launch day to pick up and purchase their device. Once that window has passed, unclaimed iPads will be returned to general stock.

In the lead up to the iPad launch, a number of leaks have revealed some of the iPad App Store launch titles. While popular iPhone games such as Flight Control and Real Racing are amongst the first group of apps, one of the big promises of the iPad was that productivity apps would be able to make further use the iPad's extra screen real estate.

Apple's iWork applications Keynote, Pages and Numbers are known to be making the jump to iPad. Meanwhile, OmniGroup also pre-announced that they will be delivering their 5 of their productivity tools to the iPad.

MacRumors can now reveal that Filemaker's Bento is also launching for iPad and will be available as a launch title. Bento is an easy to use personal database system that was originally released for the Mac. Filemaker has already released an iPhone/iPod touch version that was well received. A screenshot of the iPad version is provided here:

Like the iPhone app, Bento for iPad can be used as a standalone app or will wirelessly synchronize with Bento 3 for the Mac. The App comes with dozens of ready to use database templates that can be customized for your own usage. The iPad version of Bento is priced at $4.99, the same as the current price for the iPhone version.

MediaPost claims that Apple is poised to announce its "next big thing" on April 7th. The new product is reportedly called "iAd" and represents a "personalized, mobile advertising system".

The iAd system is believed to have been built on top of Quattro, a mobile ad firm that Apple acquired in January for $275 million. Few details are known but given Apple's recent success, many will be interested to see their next move:

"Everyone will be following this very closely," says Josh Lovison, the mobile lead at Interpublic's Emerging Media Lab, adding: "Given the way that Apple is able to package things up, with very slick presentations, it will be interesting to see what they do with that advertising."

The move would put them squarely up against Google which was largely built on advertising revenue and has had their own plans to move into the mobile space. In fact, Google's acquisition of Admob has been described as a defensive move to keep the company out of Apple's hands.

MacStories.net has discovered two new categories in iTunes that are currently unpopulated: Top Explicit Paid Software and Top Explicit iPad Software (iTunes links). The new categories confirm previous reports that Apple was working on adding such a category to iTunes.

The move appears to reverse a recent policy shift of Apple's to remove all sexually suggestive materials from the App Store. Those removals were reportedly secondary to customer complaints about the growing number of such apps.

It's not clear when (or even if) Apple will launch the new category of Apps.

Just two days ago, App Advice reported that Apple's iBookstore, set to launch in the U.S. on April 3rd alongside the iPad, was displaying $9.99 prices for the vast majority of eBooks from The New York Times best sellers list. Only a few titles were set at different price points, maxing out at $12.99

Today, however, the site reports that pricing for the same eBooks has shot up, with most of the content formerly priced at $9.99 now checking in at $12.99.

This sudden change is extremely intriguing. Is Apple using this to figure out where the leak is coming from? Did Amazon react to our announcement and pressured publishers to rise the prices? We don't know. It also remains to be seen if these price changes are just temporary of definitive.

Of the six identical titles visible in the before-and-after screenshots, five of them have been bumped up to $12.99, with only Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter remaining at $9.99. Consequently, it appears that Apple's iBookstore plans remain in flux with just a week to go before the store's launch, and we may have to wait until April 3rd to see how things truly shake out.

Patent Authority reports (via Silicon Alley Insider) that Apple has obtained the rights to the "iPad" trademark in the United States, settling what some observers had thought could be a contentious dispute over the name.

Apple now owns the iPad trademark. The trademark (Serial No. 76497338) was filed by Fujitsu in March of 2003 for their iPad wireless handheld computing device used by retailers. Records at the U.S. Patent and Trademark office show that the trademark was assigned to Apple on March 17.

International trademark filings made by an Apple shell company just before the iPad's introduction in January hinted at the tablet's name, although initial reports suggested that Apple had avoided addressing the issue in the United States, where Fujitsu had filed for a trademark on the "iPad" name in a similar field.

Evidence quickly appeared, however, showing that Apple had sought multiple extensions to required opposition periods for Fujitsu's application, and that Apple did apply for a U.S. trademark using a shell company separate from the one used in the international filings.

Apple's use of the name "iPhone" similarly stepped on the toes of another electronics company upon its introduction in January 2007, but Apple and Cisco were able to reach an agreement that permitted both companies to use the trademark.

AppleInsider reports that electronics retailer RadioShack is set to make a splash this weekend with an advertising blitz promoting the iPhone's availability in 3,000 of its 4,500 U.S. stores, pushing the company past AT&T and Best Buy to become the second-largest provider of iPhone points-of-sale behind Wal-Mart.

According to the report, RadioShack has been rolling out iPhone availability to hundreds of stores each week this year following last November's announcement that it would begin carrying the device. And to coincide with the advertising push, which will see the iPhone featured on the front of RadioShack's newspaper circular, the company is also knocking a few dollars off the price of the device.

For its part in this, Radio Shack plans to promote the entire family of iPhones on the cover of its March 28 circular, at what it claims are the lowest prices ever offered for the touchscreen handset nationwide -- essentially $5 off MSRP across the board, or $95 for the 8GB iPhone 3G, $195 for the 16GB iPhone 3GS, and $295 for the 32GB iPhone 3GS.

Apple's prices for the iPhone come in at $99/$199/$299 with a two-year contract, while Wal-Mart offers only the iPhone 3GS models at $197/$297 price points and RadioShack appears to be ready to set the standard even slightly lower.

RadioShack will reportedly also be promoting its Trade-In Program as a means for customers to replace their existing mobile phones with iPhones at discounted prices. Finally, sources indicate that RadioShack associates may receive as much as $30 or more in commissions for selling an iPhone, twice that of most other handsets and thus providing motivation for sales staff to encourage potential customers to consider an iPhone.

Apple has begun putting together the iPad-specific App Store in anticipation of the upcoming iPad launch. iPad-only Apps have begun to be approved and organized. MacRumors has managed to access the iPad's best seller lists which reveal several of the iPad App Store launch titles. The lists show several dozen applications with release dates as far back as March 19th.

The fact that the iPad-specific applications are ranked suggests that the applications are being downloaded/purchased at least on a limited basis, despite the lack of iPad availability for the general public. A report yesterday indicated that a number of these iPad-specific applications had temporarily appeared in Apple's web-based 'iTunes Preview' App Store listing.

Early app prices seem to range from Free to $9.99 for the most part, with a few higher priced examples such as OmniGraphSketcher ($14.99) shown here:

It's important to note that all prices and descriptions may not be final as developers can make adjustments to these items at any time. Wi-Fi models of Apple's iPad are scheduled to launch in the U.S. on April 3rd, with iPad-specific applications and services to go live on the same day.

A new market research study of approximately 2,000 consumers released today by NPD unsurprisingly reveals that awareness of Apple's forthcoming iPad tablet is highest among current owners of Apple products, with 82 percent of them aware of the new device. Subgroups of consumers with incomes of over $100,000 (80 percent) and in the 18-34 age group (78 percent) also registered at the top of the list for iPad awareness.

According to the report, 18 percent of surveyed consumers are interested in owning an iPad, with 24 percent of Apple owners registering interest. Respondents cited the Apple brand and the multi-touch screen as the top draws for the iPad, with most interested consumers looking at the device for music and Internet connectivity.

"The most interested potential iPad customers see it primarily as a music device, or for its internet access capabilities," said Stephen Baker, vice president of industry analysis at NPD. "Considering what people are planning to use the iPad for, it's not hard to understand why people who have these capabilities on other devices, such as the iPod Touch or a notebook/netbook, may not want to spend $500 or more on a similar device. This points to the need for Apple to close the content deals that focus the iPad on what is likely to be its best long-range value proposition around high quality media consumption."

Among the key 18-34 year old demographic, 57 percent of consumers cite the iPad's pricing, which starts at $499, as the key barrier to purchasing the new device. Almost as many consumers cite a preference for netbooks or notebooks over the iPad as their reason for not purchasing an iPad.

Overall, NPD's study found that on the order of 10 percent of surveyed consumers are planning to purchase an iPad in the next six months.

In a series of filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission yesterday, Apple revealed that a number of its senior executives have cashed in on over a million shares of Apple stock as shares granted to them over four years ago became fully vested. Fortune offers a summary of the transactions:

More than a million restricted shares of Apple (AAPL) stock that seven of them were granted on Dec. 14, 2005 became fully vested Wednesday. The next day, with Apple opening at an all-time record high, four of them sold off all those shares pursuant, as the SEC Form 4 has it, to a Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

The SEC maintains strict regulations regarding insider trading, requiring those shareholders with access to nonpublic information that could materially affect a company's stock price to fully disclose their trading to the SEC and take other steps such as scheduling trades in advance in order to limit the ability of such shareholders to take advantage of other traders. The vesting of stock grants that occurred this week also created tax liabilities for the executives involved, requiring them to cash in at least some of their holdings to cover those costs.

Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook took home the biggest payday yesterday, selling 300,000 shares of stock for a total of $68.8 million. $32 million of that amount was set aside for taxes. Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer and Senior Vice President of Retail Ron Johnson each turned in 200,000 shares to the tune of nearly $46 million apiece, and Senior Vice President of Worldwide Product Marketing Phil Schiller cashed in 150,000 shares for nearly $35 million.

Senior Vice Presidents Bertrand Serlet (Software Engineering), Scott Forstall (iPhone Software), and Bob Mansfield (Mac Hardware Engineering) also cashed in on their stock grants, but only in sufficient quantities to cover their tax obligations.

As noted by 9 to 5 Mac, Apple has begun ramping up hiring for its new data center in Maiden, North Carolina, posting ten new job openings at the site over the past few days. While rumors have suggested that the new $1 billion center might be used to support expanded cloud computing efforts, the new postings are primarily related to the technical operation of the data center and thus provide little insight into Apple's plans for the site.

In addition to this week's new postings, Apple has ten other active job openings likely related to the project that were posted over the past two months, listing them as being located in Charlotte and Hickory, North Carolina, the two cities closest to Maiden. This week's haul, however, doubles the number of currently open positions and suggests that the company may be nearing completion of construction on the project.

Last month, aerial footage of the massive data center surfaced showing work well underway on the project.