According to Tuesday reports by The Examiner’s Daryl Deino and MacRumor’s Arnold Kim, both citing sources ‘in the know,’ the retail stores of the much-awaited Apple iPad will “very likely” being at 6 p. m. on Friday, March 26. Moreover, The Examiner report also says that “People who camp out for the iPad will receive a special gift.”

The reports, though officially unsubstantiated, are in line with Apple’s announcement at the iPad’s unveiling that the 3G-less models of the device will hit the stores late March; while the 3G-enabled models will ship almost a month later.

Further, as per the reports, employees at the Apple store will get their first hands-on experience with the iPad when their training commences March 10. Meanwhile, the commercials – which will largely boast the iPad’s e-book capabilities - will probably go on air from March 15.

Though the reports, if correct, rebut the recent rumors of a supposed “manufacturing bottleneck” that might delay the shipments of the iPad due to tight inventories; inadvertent revelations from Apple’s manufacturing partner, Foxconn, hint that the initial supplies of the device would be fairly limited, because of an “unspecified production problem.”

Meanwhile, most of the Wall Street analysts expect the initial demand for the iPad to be ‘strong;’ thereby projecting the device’s first-year sales to be anywhere between 1 million and 5 million.