The iPad is Coming to Walmart This Friday

If you've been lusting after an iPad at your local Best Buy, you'll be pleased to know that the device will now be calling out to you from the shelves of your local Walmart.

Retailer Walmart last night confirmed that it will be selling the iPad, and very soon, too. The company has said that the Apple tablet will be hitting stores on October 15. That’s this coming Friday for those of you who have misplaced your calendars.

Fortune reports that the addition of Walmart stores to the 221 Apple stores, 1,093 Best Buys and 1,743 Target branches already selling the device will bring the number of places Americans can purchase an iPad to more than 5,300. The site also notes that this is the fastest Apple has every pushed a product out to the big-name retailers. The iPhone, for example, took a year and a half to reach Walmart.

It's not exactly surprising that Apple has decided to up the ante regarding retail locations. After all, the holiday season is approaching. Indeed, the Wall Street Journal reports that, though the iPad will only be in a few hundred Walmarts at first, it will be in 2,300 stores by mid-November. What would Black Friday be without iPad stampedes?

_{Source: Fortune, Wall Street Journal}