A recent Wall Street Journal (WSJ) report confirmed that the popular Apple iPad tablet will hit the Wal-Mart store shelves on Friday, October 15. All the six models of the device will be offered by the retail giant, which will roll them out to over to its 2,300 brick-and-mortar stores by mid-November.

In addition, Wal-Mart spokesman Ravi Jariwala said that the device will also be available online from the Wal-Mart website. However, like app online orders for Apple products sold by Wal-Mart, the iPad online orders will also be delivered to stores and not to residences.

The forthcoming availability of the iPad at Wal-Mart marks Apple's ongoing attempts to expand the availability of the device in the wake of competition from rival products. Among Wal-Mart competitors, Best Buy has been selling the device since April; while Target started offering it earlier this month.

The iPad at the Wal-Mart stores will be available at its full retail price, without any "rollback" price cut. As such, the low-end 16GB WiFi-only version of the device will be sold for $499 by the discount retailer, which intends showcasing all the iPad models in an interactive display in its electronics sections.

In fact, the arrival of the iPad before the 2010 holidays is no less than a coup for Wal-Mart which has earlier been able to land the iPod, iPhone and other popular Apple devices only after their availability at other mass retailers for several months.