By Businessweek.com

Apple’s  iPad tablet computer costs as little as $259.60 to build, according to analysis by the research firm iSuppli.

Materials for the iPad, which went on sale Apr. 3, include a touchscreen display that costs $95 and a $26.80 processor designed by Apple and  manufactured by Samsung Electronics, according to El Segundo (Calif.)-based iSuppli.

Apple announced the iPad, which users can hold in their hands for reading and watching videos, on Jan. 27. ISuppli’s analysis means that the components of the lowest-priced iPad, which includes 16 GB of memory, constitute 52% of its $499 retail price, on par with other Apple products including the iPhone 3GS.

A midpriced 32 GB version of the iPad that sells for $599 contains $289.10 worth of materials. A high-end 64 GB version, which retails for $699, contains components that cost $348.10, according to iSuppli.

Much of the iPad’s component costs went toward making the device appealing to use, says iSuppli principal analyst Andrew Rassweiler, who supervised the “teardown” analysis of the product. More than 40% of the iPad’s costs are devoted to powering its touchscreen display and other components of the computer’s user interface—”what you see with your eyes and what you feel with your fingers,” he says. The distinctive aluminum casing on the back of the device contributed about $10.50 to the cost of materials.

Apple spokeswoman Natalie Harrison declined to comment on iSuppli’s findings.

More Silicon Chips Than Expected

Research firms conduct so-called teardown analysis of consumer electronics to determine component prices and vendors, and to estimate profit margins. The estimates don’t include costs for intangible items such as software development, advertising, patent licensing, or shipping. In February, iSuppli had estimated that the least expensive iPad would carry a $219.35 cost of materials.

Once it took one apart, iSuppli found more silicon chips than it had expected powering interactions with the iPad’s 9.7-inch screen. Apple uses three chips to control the iPad’s touchscreen, for example. “Because of the sheer scale of this device, we’re seeing more here than we expected to,” says Rassweiler.

Over time, Apple may have leeway to combine many of the iPad’s electronic components, or integrate them into the display, Rassweiler says. “We’ll see a lot less silicon required to make them work,” he says.

The most expensive component in the iPad is its touch-sensitive, custom-manufactured screen. South Korea-based LG Display, Samsung, and Japan’s Epson supply the liquid-crystal display (LCD), according to iSuppli. Taiwan-based Wintek makes the glass overlay that detects the touch of a user’s fingertips. The screen’s special design makes it about twice as expensive as the screens used in comparably sized netbook computers, according to Rassweiler.

LG spokesman John Taylor did not return a call seeking comment. Wintek spokesman James Chen could not immediately be reached for comment. An Epson spokesman could not immediately be reached for comment. Chris Goodhart, a spokeswoman for Samsung, declined to comment.

Flash Memory Chips

Flash memory chips were also a significant portion of the iPad’s costs. The chips, obtained from various suppliers including Samsung, account for $29.50 in costs on the 16 GB model, $59 on the 32 GB model, and $118 on the 64 GB model, according to Rassweiler.

Apple designed the main chip in the iPad, known as the A4. South Korean chipmaker Samsung Electronics built the chip for Apple and also supplied a memory chip attached to it for a combined cost of $26.80, a difference of $9.80 over the prior estimate of $17. “We believe that this chip was designed by P.A. Semi,” Rassweiler says, referring to the chip design company Apple acquired in 2008 for $278 million.

Other chips in the iPad also proved more costly and more numerous than iSuppli had originally estimated. Broadcom supplied an $8.05 chip that handles Bluetooth and Wi-Fi wireless data connections, and two additional chips used to control the touchscreen, which cost a combined $3.70. Texas Instruments supplied a $1.80 chip used to help control the iPad’s touchscreen. Ciruss Logic supplied an audio chip that costs $1.20.

Broadcom spokesman Bill Blanning did not return messages seeking comment. Kimberly Morgan, a spokeswoman for Texas Instruments, declined to comment. Bill Schnell, a spokesman for Cirrus Logic, also declined to comment.

From internet news

Facebook users are on high alert this week for another e-mail scam advising that their accounts have been reset and asking them to reset their passwords through an attachment contained in the unsolicited e-mail.

But as security software vendor McAfee (NYSE: MFE) details in a blog posting, the attachment is actually a password stealer that is installed when users click on the link.

The potentially damaging e-mail is titled “Facebook Password Reset Confirmation! Customer Support,” and Facebook officials are telling users to immediately delete the message to avoid infecting their PCs and mobile devices.

Once the phishing agent is installed, it can access any username or password entered on the computer or mobile devices, putting users’ online banking account log-ins and other sensitive information at risk.

“This threat is potentially very dangerous considering that there are over 400 million Facebook users who could fall for this scam,” McAfee researchers said. “This is also the sixth most prevalent piece of malware targeting consumers in the last 24 hours, as tracked by McAfee Labs.”

With an estimated 400 million users worldwide, it’s easy to understand why hackers love to target Facebook with various phishing and malware scams on an almost weekly basis.

In January, a massive scareware campaign plagued the site for a couple days, attempting to lure Facebook users into installing bogus antivirus software on their computers.

McAfee officials said this latest malware project included “tens of millions” of spam messages sent to users around the world and would likely result in the infection of millions of computers.

McAfee recommends users install the latest version of its antivirus software to protect themselves from attacks of this type and reminds users to never click on any links or attachments contained in unsolicited e-mails regardless of how authentic or personalized they appear to be.

From CNNMONEY

As the tax deadline draws near, the IRS wants you to beware of fraudulent tax preparers, hidden offshore bank accounts and offers that seem too good to be true.

In its “dirty dozen” list, released Tuesday, the IRS urged taxpayers to avoid falling prey to — or carrying out — a number of common tax schemes that will result in copious fines or put an offender in prison for years.

Taxpayers should be wary of anyone peddling scams that seem too good to be true,” said IRS commissioner Doug Shulman. “The IRS fights fraud by pursuing taxpayers who hide income abroad and by ensuring taxpayers get competent, ethical service from qualified professionals at home in the U.S.”

Among the scams to watch out for this year are preparers who offer refunds that don’t exist, promoters who encourage you to argue with the IRS about taxes you owe, and IRS impersonators who may even use Twitter to obtain your personal information.

The IRS will also be keeping a close eye on misbehaving tax filers, so think twice before filing a phony salary, lying about charitable donations or trying to claim a tax credit for the gas costs you incurred during that road trip you took last year.

Hiring a sketchy preparer: It’s easy for an accountant or tax preparer to take advantage of you, especially if you’re unfamiliar with the tax code or paperwork involved with filing a return.

There are many preparers out there who — to make an extra buck — will skim a portion of a client’s refunds, charge more than they should for services and lure taxpayers to their office by promising unattainable refunds.

It’s up to the taxpayer to be careful when selecting a preparer, but the IRS is also taking steps to help decrease the chances that a taxpayer will end up receiving “help” from a fraud.

In future filing seasons, all paid preparers will be required to register with IRS in order to receive a preparer tax identification number. Preparers must also take competency tests and participate in continuing professional education, unless they are attorneys, certified public accountants or enrolled agents.

Hiding your money offshore: The IRS is cracking down on hidden offshore accounts, and as part of its enforcement, the agency is targeting offenders and seeking out anyone else who helped to enable the scheme.

If you have an offshore bank account, brokerage account, credit card or even an offshore insurance plan, the IRS urges you to come forward now and admit to your crime voluntarily in order to limit the possibility of criminal prosecution.

Phishing for personal information: Be careful before replying to that e-mail from the IRS notifying you of the thousand dollar refund you’re eligible for this year.

“IRS impersonation schemes flourish during the filing season,” the agency said. “Criminals use the information they get to steal the victim’s identity, access bank accounts, run up credit card charges or apply for loans in the victim’s name.”

These scams can come in the form of e-mails, phone calls, faxes or even tweets. If you receive an e-mail from someone claiming to be from the IRS, don’t open any attachments or click on links included in the e-mail. Instead, forward the message to the IRS at phishing@irs.gov.

Filing false or misleading forms: Scam artists are claiming refunds they don’t deserve by filing “false or misleading” returns, said the IRS.

Taxpayers are fabricating information returns and claiming made-up withholding credits in an attempt to make a little extra money from the IRS by way of a tax refund.

Some taxpayers carry out this scheme because they are under the belief that the federal government holds secret accounts for each of its citizens, said the IRS. These individuals believe that the funds in these hidden accounts can be accessed simply by issuing a Form 1099-Original Issue Discount, which is a phony information return.

Overvaluing your charitable donations: While giving to charity is a noble act, don’t reverse it by lying about the amount you donated.

It can be tempting to overvalue items you give away when reporting them on your return — especially for non-cash donations such as furniture or artwork — but the IRS is keeping an eye out for suspiciously high-valued donations this year.

Arguing with the IRS: Have a bone to pick with the IRS? Be careful.

Taxpayers are being convinced by scam artists to argue with the IRS in order to get back some of the taxes they owe to the agency.

“Promoters of frivolous schemes encourage people to make unreasonable and outlandish claims to avoid paying the taxes they owe,” the IRS said. “While taxpayers have the right to contest their tax liabilities in court, no one has the right to disobey the law or IRS guidance.”

The agency has a list of “frivolous” legal positions that have been “thrown out of court” and cannot be used against the IRS, so pick your fights carefully this tax season.

Fishy retirement plans: The IRS is on the hunt for taxpayers who abuse their retirement plan arrangements, including individual retirement accounts (IRAs).

Taxpayers who enter transactions that allow them to exceed the contribution limit of an IRA are wanted by the IRS, as are those people who fail to properly report early distributions.

Claiming gas costs: Trying to claim the money you spend on your hour-long commute to work each day? This could cost you a $5,000 fine from the IRS.

While taxpayers such as farmers who use fuel off highways as a means of carrying on their trade or business may qualify for the fuel tax credit, you can only claim the credit if it meets specific IRS requirements.

Disguising your company: It’s time to fess up to that business you own. The IRS is currently working with state authorities to identify corporations and other entities that disguise the ownership of a business.

These entities are often disguised through using a third party to request an employer identification number, and the businesses or financial services can be used for the underreporting of income, fictitious deductions, money laundering, financial crimes and even terrorist financing.

Giving yourself a pay cut: In an attempt to lower the amount of taxes owed, some taxpayers are filing phony wage-related information returns instead of the required returns.

“Taxpayers should resist any temptation to participate in any of the variations of this scheme,” said the IRS, adding that false filings could result in a $5,000 fine.

Abusing trusts: An increasing number of people are misusing private annuity trusts and foreign trusts to transfer income and deduct personal expenses.

“Some promoted transactions promise reduction of income subject to tax, deductions for personal expenses and reduced estate or gift taxes,” said the IRS. “Such trusts rarely deliver the tax benefits promised and are used primarily as a means to avoid income tax liability and to hide assets from creditors, including the IRS.”

Inflating your withholding credit: You could be fined $5,000 this year if you exaggerate your withholding when reporting nontaxable Social Security benefits, which would result in your falsely report zero income to the IRS.

Tell the IRS: If you notice anything fishy, report suspected tax fraud to the IRS using Form 3949-A.

From the Numbers News
Alice in Wonderland comfortably held top spot at the box office this weekend, according to studio estimates released on Sunday. In these days of 60% drops for big releases, its decline of 47% can be considered a victory for Disney and earned it an impressive $62 million in its second outing. Its total cume to date passed $200 million, and the movie is already Tim Burton’s second-highest grossing movie after 1989’s Batman.

New releases all struggled individually, but collectively earned over $40 million, indicating that the high level of competition was their biggest problem. Green Zone topped the list with $14.5 million, well down from previous Matt Damon/Paul Greengrass collaborations. She’s Out of My League picked up $9.6 million for Paramount, also below expectations but not terrible.

Remember Me scored $8.3 million for Summit. Again, that’s lower than pre-weekend projections, and something of a disappointment given Robert Pattinson’s fan base. However, it’s hardly a disaster considering the likely budget of the movie and the time of year.

Our Family Wedding was the final new wide release, and it actually did a little better than expected with $7.6 million. Its Per Theater Average was comparable with Green Zone’s, making it a fairly successful niche play for Searchlight.

Original post by Alan View from  Moneymakerinfo

If you enjoy making money online by promoting products or services, then the chances of you being in affiliate marketing are fairly high. You might have signed up as an affiliate with one or more online businesses, who then give you a specific affiliate ID. Many of the online businesses that are involved in affiliate marketing might have provided you with a simple marketing package like banner or text ads and your affiliate sales page link. The only thing you really need to do now is to use these great tools and drive traffic to your affiliate sales page.

This is the strategy almost all affiliate marketers follow, but there is a problem here. Though this is a good strategy, in order for you to make a decent amount of money, you will need to have thousands of people visiting your affiliate sales page before even one product/service is sold. That being the case, you can imagine how hard it can be to actually make a $10 commission. Even if you succeed in doing so, the amount of time and effort you would have spent in earning those $10 would be huge!

Not just this, there is another problem with earning these commissions too. If you look at the terms and conditions of your affiliate marketing program, maybe they don’t pay commissions till you have earned at least $30. That means another thousand or more visitors and then, you might just have a chance at looking at those $30.

But here is something you need to consider without getting discouraged. Internet marketing is an excellent way for you to make extra cash on the side, and it honestly does not need much of an investment.

Four Step Affiliate Marketing Process:

Instead of advertising your affiliate program directly, make use of this four step process.

1. Providing value-add: Before getting down to advertising, provide something valuable to your potential customers. The simplest ‘valuable’ thing that you can provide without much effort is free information. You can provide this free information in the form of a series of email courses, eBooks and so on.

2. Give when you get: Don’t give away your free information till you get the email addresses of your potential customers. It is vital to know the name and email address of all the prospective clients, so that you can move on to the other two steps in the affiliate marketing process.

3. Earn trust: The next step in this four step process is to earn the trust of people, due to the valuable information that you have provided.

Just as you would closely monitor information provided by someone who gives you good advice on managing money, time or effort; others will start trusting you, provided your information is trustworthy. Since you have the name and email addresses of the potential customers, you can send them occasional emails with valuable information. Remember, don’t spam their mailbox. Else, they may block you and you will lose sales.

4. The actual sale: If you have been providing the potential customers valuable information regularly, they will trust you enough to buy a product/service you recommend. The sale is easier, if you can somehow make them realize that what you are recommending is worth the amount they will be spending.

In affiliate marketing, try to sell products and services that have helped you personally. This way, it becomes easier for people to trust you and you can share your experiences with them too!

In light of the credit legislation that recently went into effect, card issuers have come up with new ways to make up revenue. Watch out ! Your card may suddenly sting you …

BECAUSE YOU’RE NOT SPENDING ENOUGH : 30 $ TO 90 $

Annual fee for some Citibank cardholders who spend less than 2 400 $ a year.

BECAUSE YOU’RE NOT SWIPPING ENOUGH : 19 $

Charge for Fifth Third Bank cardholders who do not use their card within one year.

JUST BECAUSE :  29 $ TO 99 $

Annual fee beign tested by Bank of America on a variety of new and existing cards.

1- Where’s the nearest ATM that won’t cost an arm and a leg ?

App : ATM HUNTER

Why it’s great : This app from MasterCard lets you search for ATMs based on your bank, surcharges, and other features. You can look for ATMs where you are or at an adress you are headed to.

Cost : FREE

2- That house i’m driving past is fabulous ! What is it listed for 6

App : REALTOR.COM

Why it’s great : it uses GPS to produce a map of properties for sale and open houses near your current location, wich you can refine according to distance, size of house, price range, and more.

Cost : FREE

3- How do i know the price i’m looking at in a store is a good deal ?

APP : REDLASER

Why it’s great : This apps scans any bar code and uses Google product Search and Thefind.com to locate the best price. At BestBuy, example we saw two Blu-ray movies for $29.99 each; REDLASER found them for $19.99 at Walmart.com. Best Buy matched the price on the spot. Result : a 20 $ savings.

Cost : 1.99 $

4- i know i’m going to lose this receipt and i need it for tax purposes.

APP : IXPENSEIT

Why it’s great : it enables you to quickly punch in receipt info, even letting you take pictures of those scraps of paper and store then digitaly.

Cost : FREE for the lite version ( stores up to 200 records ) and $ 4.99 for the full version ( no record limit )

A COMMON reason given by those who have yet to try Twitter: “I have nothing to say.”

The truth is, you don’t have to post a message to get the most out of Twitter.

At its best, the social medium is a perpetual, personalized news service about topics of your choosing — whether health care reform, tech news or the latest episode of “Gossip Girl” — filtered and served to you by people who care a lot about what you care a lot about.

Even the most prolific users say Twitter has become more useful as a way to tap in to the discussions of the day than to broadcast their own thoughts. And once you get pulled in, you might just find you have something to say after all.

Biz Stone, Twitter’s co-founder, suggests that naysayers simply log on to Twitter’s home page and search for a topic they are interested in, whether it’s their favorite sports team, the name of their company or a topic in the news.

Within a minute, they understand the appeal, he said.

Twitter users write 50 million messages a day. For the holdouts, here are a few ways to make Twitter work for you.

A CUSTOM NEWS FEED By the time Bridget Baker, who works in public relations in Seattle, checks Google Reader while eating lunch at her desk, she has already read most of the articles in her feed because she saw them on Twitter.

In the year since she joined, she has written only 17 posts. “I tend to be a pretty private person. and I don’t feel I have anything that needs to be said,” she said. Yet she opens Twitter first thing each morning and follows friends, bloggers and thought leaders who post about politics, religion, fashion and food.

People with shared interests become your editor and Twitter becomes an alternative RSS feed. Find those people by searching Twitter directories, like WeFollow or Just Tweet It, and by following people whom others repeat or mention.

One-fifth of posts and 57 percent of repeat messages contain a link, proving that this is an increasingly popular way to spread news, said Dan Zarrella, a social media scientist who works at a software company called HubSpot. A quick scan reveals the news of the moment as the most important stories of the day bubble up and are reposted.

For instance, when Audi showed an ad for a green car during the Super Bowl, Chip Giller, the founder of Grist, an environmental news site, immediately noticed a debate about the car’s environmental merits on Twitter. Sure enough, the next day it was a big story.

CHECK YOUR LISTS Twitter is such a fast-moving stream that you may not want to follow everyone who posts about your interests. That’s one reason Twitter invented Lists, which anyone can create. Someone could separate celebrity users, owners of food carts in New York or tech pundits, for example, so they get an unadulterated stream of news on only the topic they want at that moment.

If you don’t know who the best users are on a favorite topic, look for Lists on sites like Listorious or by checking profiles.

Janessa Goldbeck works in Washington for a rights organization, the Genocide Intervention Network. Each morning, she checks a few Twitter Lists of people who work in human rights. “I don’t want to follow all those people, but I can get a snapshot of the landscape each day by looking at the Lists,” she said. “It’s the quickest, most personalized news filter you could imagine.”

ATTEND A CONFERENCE, VIRTUALLY Most conferences these days have a Twitter hashtag. At the exclusive TED conference in Long Beach, Calif., in February, for example, attendees added #TED to the end of their posts.

By searching #TED on Twitter, people could read the latest updates (and skip the $6,000 attendance fee). People wrote quotes from the speakers, like this one: “ ‘If I only had only one wish for the next 50 years, it’d be to invent the thing that halves the cost of CO2’ — Bill Gates #TED.”

Others told us what we were lucky to be missing: “last talk on evolution #TED was obvious, boring and put audience to sleep.”

WHAT’S AROUND YOU RIGHT NOW Twitter is working on ways to deliver news nearby, like alerts about an earthquake or the closing of a bridge, Mr. Stone said.

Twitter’s list of trending topics can now be searched by city. On Wednesday, “TAKS” was a trending topic in San Antonio because schools were giving the annual achievement test of that name, while “Dennis Seidenberg” was trending in Boston because the Boston Bruins had acquired the hockey player from Florida.

Some Twitter apps, like Tweetie and TwitterLocal, let you search posts near you. Check the Web site Happn.in to see the most discussed topics in your area.

People are coming up with makeshift ways to do something similar. During the recent snowstorm in Washington, people added #snowpocalypse to the end of their posts. By searching that term, Ms. Goldbeck said she read news about closings of government offices and Metro stops before she heard it elsewhere.

ASK QUESTIONS Once your Twitter writer’s block lifts, you can use Twitter to ask questions when you don’t know whom to ask.

Ask where to eat dinner in a new city, for example, or how to extend your iPhone’s battery life, and you are sure to get answers.

Some people are even using Twitter for more urgent questions. Bertalan Meskó, a medical student at the University of Debrecen in Hungary, wrote a post about a patient with mysterious symptoms: “Strange case today in internal medicine rotation. 16 years old boy with acute pancreatitis (for the 6th! time). Any ideas?”

Within hours, specialists worldwide had responded, suggesting gallstones, lupus or growths on the pancreas. One of the suggestions helped the doctors with a diagnosis.

“It would have been impossible to find that specialist through e-mail, because we had no idea who to contact,” Mr. Meskó said.

How to make Money with GOOGLE ADSENSE

If you have a website or a blog, you should definitely sign up for Google Adsense. It’s one of the few programs you can truly ‘set and forget’ – once it’s there you don’t really need to do much else with it except making money and making it fast.

But there are ways and means to maximize your income from Google Adsense and make easy cash, and as you get to know more about it you can start to generate a decent income from it that will keep rolling in month after month. It’s a true passive income, which is why so many people are using it.

Most people have heard of Google Adsense, but not everyone understands exactly how to use it to its best advantage. So we’ll start with how to use it in its most basic sense and then progress to the more advanced benefits you can get from the program.

Basically if you have a website or blog you can sign up for a free account at Google Adsense and start putting contextual ads on your website. What do I mean by contextual? It means quite simply that the ads which appear on your site will be relevant to your content. So let’s say for example that your website is about tropical fish. The Google ads will then be related to tropical fish in some way. And because of the information that you give to Google, they will also display adverts that are relevant to your area. So if you are based in the UK the ads that appear will be relevant to UK buyers; if your site or business is based in Australia the ads will appeal to Australian buyers.

All of this is carefully worked out for you in order to attract the maximum click through possible for your website and your ads. Every time someone clicks on an ad you will get a few cents into your Adsense account, so it makes sense that the more attractive and relevant your ads are to your visitors, the more money you will make and the quick cash will begin.

Let’s have a look at the appearance of your ads now, since this can affect the amount of click throughs you get. You can choose the color and borders of your ads to fit right in with the color scheme on your site if you wish, but it’s worth experimenting with having no borders at all around your adverts since this makes them blend in with your content more seamlessly and may encourage more click throughs in a subtle but effective manner.

However well you integrate Google Adsense into your current blog or website though, there is obviously a limit to the amount of money you can make from one site. If you get thousands of people visiting your site every day then you can expect to get a good income from it but many people don’t get this number of visitors and that’s where you need a separate strategy to try and up your numbers.

In this case you can go to the advanced level of Adsense income and think about starting several sites, all based around a different yet popular subject. You should think of these essentially as being content sites, since they are often chock full of articles and useful content which is carefully keyworded to attract plenty of search engine traffic on that particular subject. The Adsense ads are then placed in the optimum positions to achieve the best click through (the Adsense pages will give you ideas on where to position them but it’s worth experimenting to see what works best for you), and the site goes live for people to find and read through.

You can also insert affiliate links for products into these sites in order to gain even more income if you wish, but they are often known as Adsense sites simply because they are set up to attract visitors and click throughs on a specific subject.

Some people end up with dozens of sites like this, and the beauty of them is that once they are built and you have bought your domain name and hosting plan you don’t really need to do too much with them except for promote them. Updating them fairly regularly is good if you want to get to a higher position in the search engine results though, which will gain you more visitors as a result.

You can also keep your site updated more regularly (and encourage repeat visitors) by inserting RSS feeds of news stories related to the subject of your website. Anything that will get people returning to read more – and possibly click on more ads as a result – is worth a try.

One final note here – choose the subjects of your Google Adsense sites wisely. It’s tempting to go for whatever is in the news at the moment, but once the stories die down so will your traffic. You want something that people will always want to know about – saving money, getting a better job, earning more, and various other more personal subjects such as skin care and successful dating for example. There are plenty of options to choose from; you just need to get your thinking cap on to find them.

In short the best place to start making money from Google Adsense is to integrate it into your existing website or blog. As you gain experience and discover the best ways to use it you can start thinking about adding extra sites into the mix. You might end up being an Adsense guru and raking in plenty of money for very little work indeed. That’s the best thing about it – the ‘set and forget’ benefit that keeps on working even when you’re not.

If you enjoyed this article or have any questions or comments about it, please leave them by using the form below. Once you’ve done that it will be time to visit Google’s Adsense site to get started! Good luck.

The iPad Threat to PCs

Apple’s new computer could erode sales of netbooks and tablet devices sold by PC makers, analysts say

By Arik Hesseldahl from businesweek

Apple’s (AAPL) new iPad, a lightweight device that browses the Web and delivers media, may serve as an alternative to netbooks and pose a threat to PC makers.

While the iPad is not a full-fledged PC, it’s capable of handling many of the tasks consumers deem important in netbooks, stripped-down notebooks that have surged in popularity in recent years. In a lightweight package, the iPad provides access to e-mail, the Internet, and digital media such as electronic books. The cheapest version of the iPad will sell for $499, compared with about $400 or less for many kinds of netbooks. “People who are looking at netbooks will also take a very serious look at the iPad,” says Charles Smulders of market research firm Gartner (IT).

That could spell trouble for computer makers such as Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), Acer (2353:TT), and Dell (DELL), which relied on netbooks for growth in recent quarters as consumers and companies delayed purchases of more expensive machines. The number of PCs shipped rose 15.2% in the fourth quarter, compared with a decline of 0.4% a year earlier, according to research firm IDC. “A substantial portion” of that growth came from the sales of netbooks, says IDC analyst David Daoud.

Silver Lining: Margin Squeeze May End

If there’s a silver lining in the iPad’s introduction, it’s that PC makers may need to boost their reliance on higher-priced devices, analysts say. Sales of netbooks can put pressure on average selling prices that if unchecked can lead to narrower margins. “The netbook market has created a race to zero margins,” Forrester (FORR) analyst James McQuivey says. “It has created a market where higher-priced, higher-margin notebooks have a harder time selling because consumers think they can get essentially the same experience in a netbook with a lower price.”

So if netbook growth slows, PC vendors may need to refocus their efforts on selling higher-margin traditional notebooks, says Daoud of IDC. “It will bring some needed sanity and new alternatives for the PC industry,” Daoud says. “For so long, all they could do was drive down prices. Now they can think outside the box and bring out devices that will compete with Apple at prices they can live with.”

Sumit Agnihotry, a vice-president at PC maker Acer, which sells several netbooks, says the smaller computers will probably keep their place in the PC industry. “The industry has proven that the netbook is an important category,” he says. “We think they’re here to stay.” Still he says Acer is working on a tablet product that will compete head-to-head with Apple’s iPad. It’s due to be announced in the second half of 2010.

iPad Will Tempt PC Tablet Users

Apple’s iPad may also make a dent in sales of existing tablet-style computers, a category that has been available for the better part of a decade but failed to catch on with consumers. Only about 1.03 million tablets were sold in 2009, down from 1.3 million in 2008, according to Gartner. Tablets are generally aimed at businesses that have a specific need for a PC that accepts input from a pen-shaped stylus. Though the iPad doesn’t use a stylus, there’s a good chance that its thin, lightweight body could lure some business users away from their tablets.

Harry Labana is chief technology officer of Citrix Systems (CTXS), which makes software that gives mobile devices, including Apple’s iPhone, the ability to access software and files on other computers remotely. He sees opportunity for sales of the iPad in areas such as medicine. For example, doctors who want to view patient records or X-ray images can do so from a device like the iPad that connects remotely to another computer where patient files are stored. “Not everyone who spends their work day walking around needs a full-power laptop or a PC to read certain data or to send mail,” he says.

Hewlett-Packard introduced a tablet it calls the Slate at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in early January. “The slate category is exciting and will be the focus of multiple efforts on several platforms in the industry,” says HP spokeswoman Marlene Somsak. “We’ll have a number of products in this space this year and beyond.” She declined t comment specifically on the iPad. A spokeswoman for Dell declined to comment.

Apple says it expects to start shipping the iPad by the end of March. The company may sell 3 million to 4 million in the first 12 months it’s available, says Gene Munster, an analyst at Piper Jaffray (PJC). It may sell 8 million iPads in 2011, he says