Target stocks Apple’s iPad in stores, hopes popular device will drive holiday shopping

Target begins selling Apple’s iPad in stores

Target has begun selling Apple’s popular iPad tablet computer, a move the retailer hopes will drive traffic to its stores this holiday season.

The six models available include 16-, 32- and 64-gigabyte versions of both the Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi + 3G models. They are available in-store only and start at $499.

Minneapolis-based Target Corp. is now the largest retail chain to carry the iPad. Best Buy Co. has carried the iPad since the device’s April launch.

The weak economy hasn’t seemed to dim demand for the tablet computer. Apple Inc. sold about 3.3 million iPads in the gadget’s first three months on the market and some analysts have estimated that it sold over 5 million iPads during the quarter ended in September.

Customers mostly browsed the selection Sunday at Target’s Cupertino, Calif., store, peppering electronics team member Chetna Parikh with questions about pricing and which wireless carrier they’d have to sign up with if they bought the device (answer: AT&T Inc.).

“We hope to sell a lot more later this week, once people are more aware that we carry it,” Parikh said in a phone interview with The Associated Press.