Recently Apple COO Tim Cook spoke at the Goldman Sachs tech conference in San Francisco and talked about many aspects of the company from recent acquisitions to, of course, the iPad.  We expected the upcoming iPad to see release in Apple retail stores as well as being directly available from Apple.com like all their other products, however the news of the iPad being available in stores like Best Buy initially is good news to many. There are also many rumors that the device will be available through AT&T stores upon its release.

“Initially it will be around places with really great assisted sales,” Cook stated. “Over time it will expand.”

When speaking of the device, AppleInsider reports Cook as claiming to have experienced using an iPad personally for about 6 months, saying “The experience is just absolutely incredible,” Cook said. “And so we’re obviously very excited about this thing and can’t wait to start shipping it.”

Cook was, not surprisingly, also quoted as saying, “It’s an incredible value at $499,” he said. “It’s an amazing experience you can have.”