iPad At Wal-Mart Rumors Heat Up

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Now that Apple’s production chain has managed to meet the demand of the iPad, we’ve seen the availability of iPads expand to a few more outlets. The first two were Target stores and Best Buy stores (the ones that lacked an ‘Apple Shop’, which is actually the minority of all total Best Buy stores). Rumors over the past month or so have pinned the iPad coming to giant retailer Wal-Mart, and those rumors haven’t quieted.

Wal-Mart said back in May that it wanted to carry the iPad, and expected to have the tablet in stock by the end of the year. Now, MacRumors has gotten their little Apple-loving hands on some spycam shots of internal Wal-Mart documents. These documents, allegedly for Wal-Mart managers, shows the different SKUs of the iPad, their prices, and how many will be available. Somewhat (un)shockingly, Wal-Marts will be given a relatively tiny amount of iPads when they first arrive.

Each Wal-Mart store can expect just five units of each iPad variant, while they’ll get only 10 units of each iPad accessory. For a giant box retailer like Wal-Mart, you’ve got to imagine that these are teeny-tiny amounts of inventory. No break on the prices, either. The prices they’ll be selling them at are the same as the price they’re sold for on Apple.com.

Further leaked documents showed that Wal-Mart corporate will begin the roll-out of iPad availability in 1,000 different stores (out of the 8,400 Wal-Mart stores) from Week 37 (which is mid-September, if they’re using the calendar year, which they may not be) to the end of October, so it’s possible that your local Wal-Mart may have iPads already in the backroom.

Yay or nay for Wal-Mart selling iPads? Tell us your opinion in the comments section.