Apple’s (AAPL) iPad tablet computer, introduced Jan. 27, may have component costs of as little as $219.35, according to a preliminary estimate by market research firm iSuppli.

Materials for the iPad, due to go on sale in March and April, include a multitouch-screen display that may cost about $80 and a $17 processor designed by Apple and manufactured by Samsung, according to El Segundo (Calif.)-based iSuppli.

Even the lowest-priced iPad, with 16 gigabytes of memory and a retail price of $499, may be beyond the reach of some budget-conscious consumers, some analysts have said. The relatively low price of the iPad’s materials gives Apple scope to reduce the retail price over time, iSuppli analyst Francis Sideco says.

“There’s certainly a decent amount of headroom in there,” Sideco says. “If they had to reduce the retail price, they certainly could.”

Price Cut Speculation

Credit Suisse (CS) analyst Bill Shope fueled speculation over price cuts when he released a research note Feb. 8 saying Apple may be flexible on pricing if the iPad doesn’t attract as many buyers as hoped. “While it remains to be seen how much traction the iPad gets initially, management noted that it will remain nimble,” Shope wrote in the note, citing recent meetings with Apple executives.

The cheapest model lacks features some consumers may want in a tablet computer and therefore may not be the most attractive option, says Roger Kay, an industry analyst and president of Endpoint Technologies Associates. “They wanted to be able to say the price is $499 and I think they shaved everything off to get there,” Kay says. “You can make the argument that the $499 model appeals only in the most limited range of use scenarios. If you want to put anything significant on it or take it anywhere, you need the more expensive models.”

Colin Smith, a spokesman for Cupertino (Calif.)-based Apple, declined to comment on iSuppli’s research as well as the prospect of price cuts for the iPad.

Research firms including iSuppli conduct so-called teardown analysis of consumer electronics to determine component prices and makers and estimate margins. Researchers at iSuppli didn’t have an actual iPad and instead relied on Apple’s public statements on its features. The analysis includes material costs, though not other expenses incurred by Apple, such as marketing.

The iPad’s most expensive component will be its 9.7-inch multitouch display, similar to the one found on the iPhone but more than twice its size. At $80, the display will cost Apple about five times the cost of the display used on the iPhone 3GS. South Korea-based LG Electronics (066570:KS) is the most likely supplier of the display, Sideco says. Apple hasn’t disclosed the identity of the maker, and LG spokesman John Taylor didn’t immediately return a call seeking comment.

A4 Chip Manufacturing

The chip running the iPad is called the A4, the fruit of Apple’s 2008 acquisition of PA Semi for $278 million.

Samsung (005930:KS) has supplied the main applications chip used in the iPhone 3GS and two previous iPhone models. In the case of the iPad, Samsung is playing a role akin to a chip foundry, building the chip under contract based on Apple’s design, Sideco says.

Chip foundry companies including Taiwan Semiconductor (TSM) and United Microelectronics (UMC), both of Taiwan, similarly manufacture chips for so-called fabless chip companies that don’t have the means to build their own semiconductor factories. Sideco estimates the A4 will cost Apple about $17, only about $2 more than the Samsung chip used in the iPhone 3GS, which cost $14.46.

Of the six iPad models Apple plans to release in March and April, three will have access to 3G wireless data networks and three will work only with Wi-Fi, each with 16, 32, or 64 gigabytes of memory. The memory chips are the key variable cost across all six models, Sideco says. The price of 16 gigabytes of flash memory is $29.50 while 32 gigabytes cost $59 and 64 gigabytes cost $118.

The most profitable of the six iPads is the 32-gigabyte version with 3G network access, Sideco says. Its combined materials and manufacturing cost of $287.15 amount to 39.4% of the retail price. The least profitable is the 16-gigabyte non-3G version, which sells for $499. Its combined costs amount to $229.35 or 46% of the retail price, leaving the slimmest potential profit margin of the six.

Hesseldahl is a reporter for Bloomberg BusinessWeek.

If you don’t have a Google Gmail account, you can get one here. Gmail blows away any other e-mail service out there, yes even Yahoo. There’s an old saying that we live by in my Industry and it applies here as well. It goes “Good Artists Copy, but Great Artists Steal.” - Pablo Picasso Google has definitely stolen the successful works of Facebook and Twitter, but has done so in a very smart way, by combining it with their very popular Gmail.

I like they took the @mentions from Twitter, so if you mention one of your friends in a Buzz post, it will notify them and they can read and comment back.

The Mobile version is nice as well and you don’t need to download an app if you own an iPhone. All you have to do it go to the webpage in your mobile Safari and you’re good to go. The address on your mobile phone is buzz.google.com

I’ve embedded their video below, watch, buzz and enjoy.

Please feel free to comment on what you think and if this will be a game changer or fizzle out like Wave. I’m interested in hearing what everyone thinks.

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Ok, now this is a cool product. Dyyno.com allows you to create your own Streaming Video Channel and broadcast it out to anyone viewing your Unique URL and the best part of all this, It’s FREE. How cool is that? The possibilities here are limitless really. You can stream anything you want and even in full 1080p HD. So for example, if you’re watching a Movie on HULU and you wanted to watch it with a loved one, or just a friend, but they’re not with you, all you have to do is start up Dyyno drag a small element from your desktop onto the Window for the movie or the webpage or the game you’re playing. Then who ever is viewing your live feed can watch along with you. There’s only one slightly large problem! They don’t currently support MAC, so no I can’t enjoy it..Argggg. That’s a shame too, because this is something I see being very useful for training and for showing clients how to use our CMS or Shopping cart.

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Startup of the Day at CES 2010

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This is not an Apple product I have any interest in and let me explain why, then you can judge for yourself. I’ll give you a nice clean list of the things it can’t do. I’m not even going to bother showing you a list of things it can do, because in my eye’s, if it doesn’t do the things it should, I don’t care what it can do. I hope that makes sense.

Things the iPad can’t do:
1. No Camera, that’s right, you can’t take pics and e-mail them.
2. No Web Cam, that’s right, no iChat or Skype Video chatting.
3. No Flash, that’s right, you can’t watch NBC, CBS, ABC, FOX or HULU.
4. No External Ports, such as Volume, Mic, DVI, USB, Firewire, SD card or HDMI
5. No Multitasking, which means only one App can be running at a time. Think iPhone = Failure.
6. No Software installs except Apps. Again think iPhone = Failure.
7. No SMS, MMS or Phone.
8. Only supports iTunes movies, music and Books, meaning Money, Money, Money for Apple.
9. WAY, WAY, WAY over priced.
10. They will Accessorize you to death if you want to do anything at all with it and you can bet these Accessories will cost $29.99 for each of them.
11. No Full GPS*
12. No Native Widescreen*
13. No 1080P Playback*
14. No File Management*
*Newly Added

What an utter disappointment and abysmal failure of an Apple product. How can Steve Jobs stand up on that stage and hype this product up and not see everything this thing is not and everything this thing is lacking? Where is the revolutionary Steve Jobs? Where is our glorious Apple iPad with everything everyone in the Blog and User Group Communities have been asking for in the last 6 months? This product shows that Apple has lost touch with their customers needs and wants, not to mention the current technology that it could have had. If you want to see all the technology and features other companies are packing into their Tablets, just go to Mashable and I think you’ll agree and see why the iPad is a failure.

Apple would like you to believe the new iPad is a revolutionary new product, with all new ideas, but it’s really just part Digital Picture Frame, part iPhone and part E-Reader. That’s it folks. They even use words like Magical, Ground Breaking and Breathtaking.

I’m Completely disappointed and now waiting for Google to do it right and create the same thing, but with all the features people would expect it to have.

Now, you want to see a cool Tablet? It’s a little large, but this I would buy Today, if it was ready.

Reading the latest version of MacWorld, I came across their recommendation for JiTouch. JiTouch is awesome, it allows you to add more finger gestures to the track pad, such as tabbing back and forth between Tabs in FireFox, opening new Tabs, Closing Tabs, resizing windows, refresh, minimize windows and zoom. So if you’re an Avid Mac Book Pro user, like myself, and you want to improve your productivity even more, you have to give JiTouch a try.

A friend of mine sent me a link to Zumbox over the Holiday weekend and after giving it a short look, I can see a big reason why the U.S. Postal Service should be Very worried. Basically what Zumboz does, is eliminate the regular postal mail for the Millions of people who have and signup for Zumbox. Here’s a quick scenario, a Company such as Southern California Edison, signs up and creates a Zumbox account to send mail to anyone at any address that registers an account and is the owner of that address. Yeah I know, kind of confusing, until you really start to think about it differently. Here’s a Video from Zumbox you can watch, so take a look for yourself.

Some have asked, Where does social media live? Is it marketing? Is it public relations? Is it IT or corporate? Is it a combination of multiple business units and functions, and if so, who leads the efforts and how does an organization choose partners? These are valid and complex questions, currently with no simple answers. Social media is still emerging and being defined in real time.

There’s a question missing from that litany, one that organizations or individuals rarely ask themselves: Do you live social? Many organizations simply skip this question because they assume that they themselves don’t have to be social (open and collaborative) to reap the rewards (cost savings, marketing ROI, effective reputation management, and search engine juice) they think they might get from social media.

But social media’s not a product you foist on others, or some rigid business process that, if implemented, yields results. You shouldn’t treat social media like a temporary advertising campaign. Social media is more organic than that. It’s a way of thinking and approaching business that requires passion and commitment and, above all, willingness to participate in social spaces honestly and freely and by the rules of the social network itself. When someone ridicules your organization in the social space, unfiltered in real time, how do you react? If you are trying to control rather than participate in the discussion, then you’re not living social. When your own employees talk about your organization on a social network what do you do?

An organization which bans the use of social networks of its employees may have perfectly good reason to do so, but then turning around and hiring an ad agency, PR firm or business consultancy to go out and “be social” for them will limit potential success. One of the beautiful (or perhaps frustrating, if you’re in marketing) aspects of social media is its ability to detect and look askance at posers. If you’re not genuinely, honestly engaged in the social network, you’re not going to get far with those who are.

It’s not easy for organizations to adopt a social mindset, after decades of command-and-control marketing and PR. I believe that starting small is the way to go. Pilot initiatives that demonstrate success by being more open, collaborative and participatory pave they way for changes that can slowly influence the direction of an organization. Executive sponsorship will also help give social media efforts teeth. I’ve always been pleasantly surprised to see initiatives such as My Starbucks Idea result in new ideas getting implemented, like splash sticks. (Full disclosure: Starbucks is a client of Edelman, the firm I now work for).

Training can help get you started, too — some individuals naturally lean toward working/living in a social way while others need a bit of assistance.

So while managers debate who will control social media inside their organizations — marketing, PR, corporate, IT — I say stop and ask the bigger question: Do any of the people who make up your company, agencies, partners and so on actually live social? Do they demonstrate that they work and play in a connected fashion? Once we begin to resolve that (and don’t underestimate the power of baby steps), then we can worry about which discipline, department or agency/consultancy is best equipped to help lead the way.

David Armano is SVP digital at Edelman, a global communications firm. He can be found on Twitter as @armano