As the MMi crew and company join the broad Apple customer base today in anticipation of the iPad 2′s arrival later today, there’s no shortage of interesting projections emerging this afternoon with regard to just how big this debut weekend could be for Apple’s second generation tablet.

Watching the stock ticker above my office door, shares of Apple are presently trading $4.49 higher @ $351.16 as both hype for Apple’s new product and Wall Street expectations are certainly lighting a fire beneath the stock. Analyst Brian Marshall of Gleacher & Co. tells Bloomberg that more than 500,000 units of the iPad 2 will be sold this weekend, on its way to out-selling the original iPad, which only moved a relatively paltry 300,000 units in its debut one year ago.

Prominent Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster – who happens to have a largely positive track record predicting Apple product sales and subsequent earnings – says Apple will sell between 5 and 6 million iPad 2s during the present launch quarter, topping the 3 million first generation iPads sold during its 2010 launch quarter. Helping Apple tremendously on this front is a combination of factors poised to make the iPad 2 a sure-fire success. Among the factors are generally positive user experiences relating to the original iPad, the new concerted retail push by Apple and its partners, and the positive reaction from tech analysts who believe the improvements made to the iPad 2 make it the premium tablet on the market today.

Source: Bloomberg

Even before Apple debuts its second-generation iPad this year, some are predicting tablet sales to be so heavily dominated by the Cupertino iDevice maker that competitors will have an almost impossible challenge trying to catch up. On Friday, Barclays analyst Ben Reitzes said Apple’s tablet is "running far ahead of its tablet competition and its their game to lose," noting that Apple will likely sell a record number of iPads in 2011.

According to coverage provided by Barron’s, Apple is effectively running away with the ball in this game, despite having not even set up an enterprise salesforce yet. But Apple is “listening to enterprise customers.” As a result, Reitzes concluded in his conference call with a research analyst at Forrester Research that Apple is the clear “winner in the consumerization of IT,” adding that Forrester’s work "supports the view more and more corporate users are buying devices and bringing them into work.”

Reitzes, who maintains am "overweight" rating on Apple shares and a $450 price target, says the Barclays is officially estimating that 47 million tablets will be sold this year. 33.7 million of those tablets are expected to be Apple iPads. Despite that lofty sales estimate, one would be hard-pressed to find any other credible analyst on Wall Street who doesn’t maintain similar sales expectations for the iPad in 2011.

Barron’s

Are US retailers selling knockoff iPads as the real thing? That’s the allegation being made by a man in Massachusetts who claims that he bought an iPad from Best Buy only to find out it was a fake. He says Best Buy accused him of scamming them when he returned the iPad to the store. There’s no way yet of knowing what’s really going on here, but supposedly other customers have experienced the same thing, and Best Buy says they’re investigating.

Bryan Shlager went to a Best Buy in Dorchester, Massachusetts to buy an iPad for his son, who is a college freshman. Shlager claims his son could not get the device to turn on, and so he then took it to a Best Buy store close to his son’s Florida campus. The Geek Squad at that Best Buy informed the man that the iPad wasn’t an Apple device at all, but a non-functional fake. There’s an interesting twist where Shlager then goes to a couple of other Best Buys before returning to Massachusetts and again attempting to return the device. The local store also refused it, saying the man was trying to get a legit iPad in exchange for the fake. “They accused me of bringing home a new one and replacing it with a dummy and trying to return a dummy,” said Shlager.

After leaving the Massachusetts store, Shlager claims that Best Buy called and left a message; not for him, but for his wife. "They told her that this happened to five or six other people in the store and they realize that there is an issue," he said.

Channel 7 News in Boston did a story on the incident and contacted best Buy. Company spokesperson Jennifer McNamara released a statement that said: "Thank you for bringing this situation to our attention. We are investigating but do not have any additional information to share at this time." Shlager says that he not only wants the $800 he spent on the iPad back, but he wants Best Buy to give him a free iPad "for my aggravation."

Source: Cult of Mac

A purported leak from the parent company of an electronics chain in Great Britain is giving the first hint of what the new Samsung Galaxy Tab might cost. The entry level model of the so-called ‘iPad killer’ will retail for £599.99 – the equivalent of $950 US – without a contract, according to Paul Lamkin at Pocket-Lint, who cites anonymous sources at the DSG Group. This compares to £529 for an unlocked iPad with similar specs (though the iPad has a screen almost three inches larger than the 7-inch Galaxy Tab).

DSG Group is the owner of UK retailers Currys, Dixons and PC World, which have said they’d be selling the Galaxy Tab through both unlocked and carrier-subsidized arrangements. The cost of the Galaxy Tab with a contract is unknown as yet, but it’s instructive to compare the £599.99 ($948 US) recommended retail price for an unlocked 7-inch, 16GB Galaxy Tab to the 9.7-inch SIM-free iPad WiFi+3G at £529, or about $840, on the Apple UK Online Store. Amazon’s UK store also has the device available for preorder at the £599.99 price.

Last week, Samsung confirmed the Galaxy Tab would be available in the UK from November 1st. The tablet will be sold by the four major US carriers by the end of the year, but details on timing and pricing have not yet been released.

Source: Pocket-Lint

Those who pre-ordered their iPad for the big April 3rd roll-out will likely receive a notification of their order status before the end of this week. And while hundreds of thousands of customers will either receive their tablet at home or pick it up at the nearest Apple store, it appears there’s one location that won’t be part of the iPad frenzy – your local AT&T store.

Overall, it hasn’t been a positive week for AT&T so far. First, as covered by MMI, it was reported that Apple will now make the iPhone available for purchase without a corresponding AT&T contract. Additionally, based on another "email from Steve Jobs," the iPad will be available for purchase exclusively at Apple retail and online stores and Best Buy. At this time, AT&T simply isn’t part of the picture.

The latest note from Steve Jobs (assuming, of course, that the messages are legit) tops off a flurry of terse email comments from the Apple chief in recent days. Jobs reportedly responded to an inquiry as to whether it’s possible to get documents on the iPad via iWork.com with a simple "yes." Last night, the blogosphere lit up with reports of an email from Jobs telling one Apple customer "not to worry" in response to concerns about the enormous lag time between MacBook Pro updates.

Although these scantly-worded emails from Jobs hardly suggest a talkative-turn for the mostly reclusive tech titan, it is clear that there is no shortage of hustle and bustle around Cupertino right now as the company prepares for the rush of a major product release and significant updates to other established and equally popular products. Overall, its a whole lot of activity that seems to have very little to do with AT&T.

Image via USA Today

Those who pre-ordered their iPad for the big April 3rd roll-out will likely receive a notification of their order status before the end of this week. And while hundreds of thousands of customers will either receive their tablet at home or pick it up at the nearest Apple store, it appears there’s one location that won’t be part of the iPad frenzy – your local AT&T store.

Overall, it hasn’t been a positive week for AT&T so far. First, as covered by MMI, it was reported that Apple will now make the iPhone available for purchase without a corresponding AT&T contract. Additionally, based on another "email from Steve Jobs," the iPad will be available for purchase exclusively at Apple retail and online stores and Best Buy. At this time, AT&T simply isn’t part of the picture.

The latest note from Steve Jobs (assuming, of course, that the messages are legit) tops off a flurry of terse email comments from the Apple chief in recent days. Jobs reportedly responded to an inquiry as to whether it’s possible to get documents on the iPad via iWork.com with a simple "yes." Last night, the blogosphere lit up with reports of an email from Jobs telling one Apple customer "not to worry" in response to concerns about the enormous lag time between MacBook Pro updates.

Although these scantly-worded emails from Jobs hardly suggest a talkative-turn for the mostly reclusive tech titan, it is clear that there is no shortage of hustle and bustle around Cupertino right now as the company prepares for the rush of a major product release and significant updates to other established and equally popular products. Overall, its a whole lot of activity that seems to have very little to do with AT&T.

Image via USA Today