In all cases, the WiFi+3G iPad provides a bigger margin that the same configuration in WiFi-only. The $599 WiFi-only iPad, which includes 32GB of flash storage, costs Apple $316, for a margin of 48.1%; the same iPad with 3G has a $729 price tag, but runs Apple only $332, a margin of 55.1%. That's the highest of any iPad according to Marshall's analysis.

Apple's iPad line as a whole enjoys a margin of approximately 50%, assuming that the lower-priced WiFi-only tablets sell much better than the 3G models. In a research note to investment clients, he called the iPad "another grand slam for Apple," and upped his estimate of iPad sales during 2010 from 2.2 million to 7 million.

High profit margins are standard for Apple, which earlier in the week boasted that its corporate margin for 2009's final quarter was 40.1%. Some products, in fact, have estimated margins even higher than Marshall's iPad numbers: The consensus for the iPhone 3GS is above 60%, for example.

"If [Marshall] is right, this shows that there's room going forward for Apple to reduce the price of the iPad," said Ezra Gottheil, an analyst with Technology Business Research. "I think the $499 price point is very aggressive, but if they dropped [the price] it would really put the iPad in the netbook range. At a lower price, consumers will have to decide what they want for a portable work and play device, a netbook or get an iPad."

Marshall was one of the first to put numbers on how much Apple stands to make from its newest product. iSuppli, a research firm in El Segundo, Calif. that's noted for to build detailed BOM models, declined to provide its own estimate today, saying that it was working on a preliminary price list that it would publish sometime next week.