A new rumor suggests Apple store employees will get their first hands-on experience with the iPad and begin training on March 10, while consumers could be able to purchase one Friday, March 26.

Citing an unnamed Apple store manager in Souther California, Daryl Deino of The Examiner reported Tuesday evening that the definitive release date has not yet been determined, but the March 26 date is « very likely. » As was announced at its unveiling, the 3G-enabled models will arrive about a month later.

And while employees will be trained starting March 10, commercials will allegedly begin to air on TV starting March 15. Those TV spots are expected to emphasize the e-book capabilities of the device.

Finally, the report claimed that those who camp out for the iPad will receive a « special gift. »

If accurate, the report would suggest that an alleged « manufacturing bottleneck » will not delay the launch of Apple’s new multi-touch device. However, initial supplies could still be constrained, as rumors of an « unspecified production problem » have surfaced from Apple’s manufacturing partner, Foxconn.

Initial demand for the iPad is predicted to be strong, with most analysts on Wall Street forecasting first-year sales of between 1 million and 5 million.

Via AppleInsider

After the introduction of the iPad gave publishers leverage to raise e-book prices on the Amazon Kindle, a new report states that consumers have « unrealistic expectations » about how low e-book prices should be.

This week, The New York Times provided a breakdown on the economics of producing a book from the publisher’s perspective. It noted that while printing costs go away when a book is reproduced in an electronic format, a number of expenses remain, including royalties and marketing.

The report said that while the average hardcover bestseller is $26, the cost to print, store and ship the book is just $3.25. That cost also includes unsold copies returned to the publisher by booksellers.

Publishers get roughly half — $13 — of the selling price of a book. But after factoring in payments to the author and the cost of cover design and copy editing, only about $4.05 is left. And, the report noted, that doesn’t even include overhead such as office space and electricity.

Under Apple’s agreement with publishers for the iBookstore, the hardware maker will keep 30 percent of each book sale, leaving $9.09 for the publisher on a typical $12.99 e-book.

« Out of that gross revenue, the publisher pays about 50 cents to convert the text to a digital file, typeset it in digital form and copy-edit it, » the report said. « Marketing is about 78 cents. »

Author’s royalty can range from $2.27 to $3.25 on an e-book, leaving the publisher with between $4.56 and $4.54, before paying overhead costs. For comparison, under Amazon’s $9.99 e-book model, publishers would take in between $3.51 and $4.26 before overhead.

« At a glance, it appears the e-book is more profitable, » the report said. « But publishers point out that e-books still represent a small sliver of total sales, from 3 to 5 percent. If e-book sales start to replace some hardcover sales, the publishers say, they will still have many of the fixed costs associated with print editions, like warehouse space, but they will be spread among fewer print copies. »

Publishers are also wary of making e-books too cheap for fear of killing off booksellers like Barnes & Noble.

Apple will serve books for the iPad through its iBookstore, due to be a part of the iBooks application for iPad. The software features a 3D virtual bookshelf displaying a user’s personal collection, and allows the purchase of new content from major publishers. Like the Kindle, it will offer content from the New York Times Bestsellers list.

The introduction of the iPad has driven publishers to force Amazon into higher prices for new hardcover bestsellers. While books are currently priced at $9.99 on the Kindle, that is expected to rise to between $12.99 and $14.99 by the time the iPad launches later this month.

The charge was led by Macmillan, which was followed soon after by Hachette Book Group and HarperCollins in renegotiating with Amazon.

Last week it was revealed that Amazon frantically phoned publishers as Apple co-founder Steve Jobs gave his keynote introducing the iPad in July.

While publishers had their way and Amazon reluctantly agreed to higher prices, not every bestseller will carry the new, higher premium price. It has been said that while higher prices are an option for publishers, and most new titles will be between $12.99 and $14.99, publishers can also choose to lower prices on select titles.

Via AppleInsider

The Associated Press is building an iPad app that provides subscription access to news reports, countering the primarily ad-only model for news on the Web.

According to a report in the Financial Times, AP’s iPad plans were unveiled along with the creation of a new business unit called AP Gateway, which will be devoted to helping the wire service’s member newspapers keep abreast of new technologies ranging from e-readers to mobile phones.

The AP hopes to help its member papers roll out electronic editions of their publications without each paper having to develop its own digital strategy in Web access and mobile apps, something that many papers lack the resources and expertise to do on their own.

You get what you pay for

The move to create paid subscription access to wire service news follows a business model pioneered by specialized newspapers such as the Financial Times and Wall Street Journal, which both provide premium access to news to their paying subscribers both on the web and via native iPhone apps.

Reuters and the New York Times are also both planning to roll out paid access to their Web properties over the next year.

Speaking at the Colorado Press Association’s annual meeting, AP’s chief executive Tom Curley said that, « For publishers, [2010] likely is the defining moment. We must seize this opportunity to reinvigorate our business models as well as our journalism. »

Curley said the AP was convinced by three years of anthropological research that its publishers must differentiate their content, and not add to « information overload. »

Can iTunes save print publishing?

Traditional print publishers are in many respects in the same boat as music labels were a half decade ago, as they discover that their traditional paying customers are now accessing their creative work for nothing over the Internet.

Apple offers a new business model for print publishers in its iTunes App Store, following a model that that has worked successfully for music labels as well as television and movie studios.

However, just as with the labels and studios, Apple’s print partners are expressing an initial wariness about its control over the marketing and promotion of content within iTunes, as well as its control over valuable customer information, such as what content people are buying at what prices.

With the only mobile software store providing tight integration across tablet, smartphone and music player products, Apple’s App Store will be hard for rival hardware and software platform vendors to challenge, and extremely expensive for content producers to attempt to replicate, a fact that music labels wasted a lot of efforts discovering in the first half of the last decade.

Via AppleInsider