Well it’s only a few days away and the anticipation is certainly building up. The iPad will be available in stores April 3rd, but consumers are not the only ones who are investing money into this revolutionary new device. As we already know The New York Times is launching an iPad application that will be available when the new device hits the shelves.

The New York based national newspaper is already seeing return on their investment as advertisers from all sorts of industries begin buying up inventory. It has been reported by multiple sources that big-name advertisers have already bought ad space on the NYTime iPad app. Unilever, Toyota Motor, Korean Air and Fidelity have booked space on the New York Times’s iPad application, and Chase Sapphire already purchased all of their advertising units for two months.

iPad advertisements on print publishers’ applications cost $75,000 to $300,000 for a few months with some exclusivity, Phuc Truong, managing director of Havas Digital’s Mobext US, told the NY Times. Early excitement is due, in a large part, to tapping into the Apple buzz, which includes having advertisements show up in all Apple in-store demos of the product. Time is charging $200,000 for a single spot in its first eight issues designed for the iPad. The Wall Street Journal has four-month deals with several companies that cost $400,000.

These are by no means numbers to ignore. Spreed has been contacted by a number of our publishing and media partners to develop iPad apps for them and we are working very closely with a number of them to design what we think will be a best of breed solution. The iPad has unique capabilities and design opportunities that we are very excited to be working with. Please let us know if you need any help building or monetizing your iPad applications.