Apple Rolls Out TV Ad for iPad

It’s lights, camera, and almost “action” for Apple’s iPad tablet. During Sunday night’s Academy Awards ceremony Apple trotted its iPad down the Hollywood red carpet (so to speak) launching a television advertising campaign. According to reports Steve Jobs himself joined the roster of stars attending Sunday night’s event in person.

According to the commercial, Apple’s iPad device will launch on April 3. Pre-orders for the iPad will start on March 12 for the Wi-Fi only version in the U.S., and 3G enabled versions will come out later in April.

The iPad ad (embedded below) uses an upbeat song in the background (The Blue Van – There Goes My Love) and was aired immediately after the motion picture “Up” from Disney/Pixar won the Best Animated Film award. Jobs is on Disney’s board of directors and used to be Pixar’s Chairman before Disney bought it in 2006.

The ad shows a man using the iPad on his lap, going through various features of the devices, such as photos, videos, e-books, and Pages. The ad matches in style previous iPhone and iPod TV spots. Time will tell whether Apple enlists the “Get a Mac” duo of John Hodgman and Justin Long for a “Get an iPad” ad campaign. Maybe we’ll see one of those ads if (or when) Microsoft launches its Courier tablet PC.

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