Tablet Computer, Ipad | featured news

AT&T (T) said today it will sell the Apple (AAPL) iPad directly to business customers.

Verizon Wireless will begin selling Apple's iPad at its 2,000 retail stores nationwide on Oct. 28, the companies announced Thursday.

New numbers show Apple moving 4.5 million iPads per quarter, making it the fastest selling gadget ever.

The retail giant will offer all six models of the iPad and will roll out the tablet devices to over 2,300 stores by mid-November.

A new Microsoft SEC filing published late Thursday revealed that the company punished its CEO Steve Ballmer for his inability to turn around the company's struggling mobile efforts so far. The proxy statement notes that his total compensation of $1.35 million, including a $670,000 base salary and a matching bonus, was lower than in 2008 due to the "unsuccessful launch of the Kin" and "a loss of market share" for Windows Mobile. The Compensation Committee singled out the absence of a real Windows tablet rival through a need to "take advantage of new form factors."

“For the holidays, the tablets will be mostly Android-based, plus the iPad,” said Mike Vitelli, Best Buy’s President of North and South American business, in an interview.

Buried in a story on Best Buy's retail strategy, CEO Brian Dunn mentioned a startling fact: Internal estimates showed that the iPad had cannibalized sales from laptop PCs by as much as 50%.

iPad watch out: Samsung is gunning to take over the tablet market. The company announced during a press conference late Thursday that the recently announced Galaxy Tab would be launching on all four major US cellular networks—Verizon, Sprint, AT&T, and T-Mobile—and a WiFi-only option will be available soon. There won't be any 4G-capable devices at launch, however (only 3G), and Samsung is remaining mum on pricing.

Apple is said to be making a 7-inch version of its iPad tablet computer.

Apple has made a small but noticeable change to the iPad version of the App Store, introducing a "Genius" tab to the app's bottom menu bar.