BoomTown is certainly going to be one of the many-so-many who immediately fork over whatever it takes to get my mitts on the upcoming tablet device from Apple.

And that’s why, according to a new report from Piper Jaffray Senior Research Analyst Gene Munster–who is monk-like in his devotion to writing down every scrap of information he can scrape up about whatever Apple HQ in Cupertino, Calif., deigns to release–it’s going to be raining money down on the company, just like manna from heaven.

That would be $1.2 billion in revenue in calendar year 2010, after he estimated that Apple (AAPL) will sell two million units at a price of $600.

“While at first glance this may appear to address a niche market, we believe the addressable market is larger than that of the Apple TV, of which Apple sold about 1.2m in its first year,” wrote Munster.

He apparently spoke to some leaky Asian component suppliers, who have received orders from Apple, to be “fulfilled by late CY09.”

Munster, who also provided the mock-up image of the Jesus Tablet seen above (it will take its place next to the Jesus Phone and Jesus Pod), wrote that the device was pretty much a larger iPod touch.

It will run all the usual apps and have some extra ones, specially designed for the big screen, he predicted.

It will also be Web-connected and, of course, is a touchscreen and play all kinds of media, like music, games and video.

But don’t call it a netbook!

“We believe an Apple tablet would be priced 30%-50% below the $999 MacBook, and would offer best in class web, email, and media software,” wrote Munster. “In other words, we believe Apple’s tablet would compete well in the netbook category even though it would not be a netbook.”

Also, there will be a 3G modem–personally, we all pray Apple picks Verizon (VZ) and not AT&T (T) to be the mobile provider–with a possible subsidy on the sale of the device.

The hype around the new and doubtlessly innovative Apple product–my vote for a name is that it will be called iTablet–is likely to grow into the fall, especially if it is introduced by the miraculously on-the-mend CEO Steve Jobs.

Apple fanboys: Can you say Hallelujah?

While Microsoft COO Kevin Turner did a kind of modified cheerleading act at Microsoft’s annual Financial Analyst Meeting, Entertainment and Devices President Robbie Bach played the teenage boy and Chief Research and Strategy Officer Craig Mundie the voice from the future.

During his presentation at the event at the Microsoft (MSFT) HQ in Redmond, Wash.–a series of presentations for Wall Street analysts and the media–Bach showed off the Xbox’s new Project Natal motion-sensing technology, which lets you play games and more without a controller.

Bach spazzed out nicely playing a game called Ricochet, with a storm of virtual red balls coming at him, although I was slightly worried the exertion might cause him to collapse on stage.

Turner was on before Bach, pretty much doing cleanup after CEO Steve Ballmer’s presentation, talking up all of Microsoft’s various businesses, while talking down its competitors’.

Said Turner, whose mantra was building market share for Microsoft: “Strong innovation, strong innovation investment, as well as strong operational excellence that we’re driving to compete and grow our market share.”

Strong, got it? (Frankly, I know companies always put their best foot forward at events like this–but after Ballmer’s own He-Man speech, BoomTown is a little worried that Scary Microsoft could be making a comeback, after a few post-antitrust years of Kinder-Gentler Microsoft.)

Bach, given his job, was a lot more entertaining and had more to show off, although he could not be as positive about the software giant’s mobile experience, given the juggernaut of the iPhone from Apple (AAPL).

“First of all, in Windows Mobile, as Steve pointed out, we had a challenging year from a share perspective,” said Bach. “Much tougher competition in the U.S. and certainly there is plenty of competition in this space.”

No kidding!

Natal is, of course, the pretty one for Bach’s division.

“It is about technology innovation and experience innovation. I think it will lead to a bigger and better business as well,” said Bach. “It is certainly an opportunity for us to build something new.”

Mundie also showed a lot of new futuristic stuff, which borrowed from the Natal technology, including a demo of a gesture-rich “office of the future” experience.

Said Mundie: “But as far as Microsoft, one of the greatest opportunities going forward is to realize there will be a successor to the desktop. It is the room. It is the fixed computing environment. The question is what can you do with computing when you have a much more robust man-machine interaction model and you don’t have to fold it in half and move it and run it on a battery.”

In the midst of it, though, he chit-chatted with a very scary “digital assistant” named DAG (I think it must stand for Digital Assistant Golem) on the screen, whose voice freaked me out in the exact way HAL from “2001: A Space Odyssey” always does.

After helping Mundie with a bunch of stuff, I am guessing DAG went off into the computer to work on a secret plan to kill off the human race.

Well, it was nice being here for this long on our little blue planet, Earth!

So, while we wait for DAG to destroy us, here’s the video demoing Natal that Bach showed to the audience, which is not new, but still pretty cool:

I chatted with both Rosensweig and Activision (ATVI) president and CEO Bobby Kotick yesterday about the move and where the gaming company is going in the year ahead.

“I love music and I love big brands,” said Rosensweig (pictured here), whose enthusiasm for music, especially for Bruce Springsteen, is well known in Silicon Valley. “I wanted to do something different, something fun and something that was going to be the next big space online.”

And, indeed, the online music gaming space is stronger than most other Internet businesses these days, with a lot of potential, having just started to tap into social networking, mobile and other interactive possibilities.

So far, as a retail and home phenom, Guitar Hero has been a huge success since its release in 2005, followed by several new versions. And the company will be releasing a hip-hop-themed DJ Hero–complete with a turntable–soon, for example.

But, to keep up the pace, it will now be Rosensweig’s job to feed the consumer beast as never before.

Kotick said he had spent a lot of time looking for the right exec to turbocharge the company’s online Guitar Hero network. Already, for example, he pointed out that 200,000 original, user-generated songs had been uploaded to its Web site, with many millions downloaded back.

He noted that the concept of the “release your inner rock star” fantasy that Guitar Hero taps into at home had still not gone online as much as it could, and added that the brand would be moving into more and more music genres.

“We already have a big online business, but we have not even reached into five percent of the installed base of gamers,” said Kotick (pictured here). “I wanted someone who could focus on this with a passion and who gets how to leverage what we have already built.”

Kotick said he initially had asked Rosensweig for suggestions about who would be good for the job, having gotten to know him when Rosensweig was COO of Yahoo (YHOO) and Kotick was on its board.

“It was funny, but as I started talking to him, I thought he was the perfect person for it,” he said.

And it was perfect timing too, with all the turbulence on Wall Street and in the private equity business. Rosensweig had already been thinking about getting back into operations, after his post-Yahoo stint at Quadrangle.

“There is a lot of uncertainty in the market, but what I really wanted to do was be part of developing a whole new space for an already hugely successful brand,” he said. “The growth opportunity and the ability to scale here is enormous.”

Rosensweig, who will start April 20, does have his work cut out for him, overseeing Guitar Hero’s game development, marketing and distribution.

(The division’s former head and the co-creator of Guitar Hero, Kai Huang, will report to him, while Rosensweig will report to Activision President Mike Griffith.)

Besides dealing with the weak economy, which the company signaled in its most recent quarter could bring trouble, the Guitar Hero behemoth must keep innovating.

Rosensweig is also facing competition when competitor Rock Band releases a Beatles-focused music offering in September. It is likely to be very popular, even though Guitar Hero has typically outsold Rock Band.

More significantly, some think the entire online music gaming trend has played out, with sales down year over year.

Not Rosensweig. “It is just the beginning of what it could be online in this business,” he said.

And, for those interested, here is the full press release:

Activision Publishing Names Media Veteran and Former Yahoo! COO Dan Rosensweig President and CEO of Guitar Hero(R) Business Unit

–Appointment Further Strengthens Company’s Senior Management Team

SANTA MONICA, Calif., March 23, 2009 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX News Network/–Further strengthening its senior management team, Activision Publishing, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATVI) announced today that Dan Rosensweig has been named President and Chief Executive Officer of RedOctane, the business unit which develops the blockbuster Guitar Hero(R) franchise and soon to be released DJ Hero(TM).

Mr. Rosensweig will oversee Guitar Hero’s global operations including game development, hardware manufacturing, supply chain, logistics and marketing. He will report directly to Mike Griffith, President and CEO of Activision Publishing. Kai Huang, former President and CEO of RedOctane, who along with his brother Charles Huang created Guitar Hero, will continue working at RedOctane reporting to Mr. Rosensweig.

Mr. Rosensweig brings significant experience to Activision having served as Chief Operating Officer of Yahoo! from 2002 through 2006, where he oversaw the company’s worldwide operations including its product development, marketing, and advertising sales and the development and introduction of inventive new Internet advertising formats.

Additionally, he spent 18 years at Ziff Davis, most recently serving as President where he was responsible for the global operations of the company and the successful merger of ZDNet and CNET. He held several senior positions during his tenure at Ziff-Davis, including President and Chief Executive Officer of ZDNet, which he built from a standalone Ziff-Davis company to a publicly traded, highly trafficked Internet network, President of Ziff-Davis Internet Publishing Group and Vice-President and Publisher of PC Magazine.

Prior to joining Activision, from 2007-2009, Mr. Rosensweig served as an operating principal at Quadrangle Group, a private investment firm, where he focused on the firm’s media and communications private equity business.

“Under the leadership of Kai and Charles, Guitar Hero established the music gaming genre and became a global phenomenon,” said Mike Griffith. “With the addition of Dan’s proven operational expertise and leadership, we will continue expanding the franchise’s global footprint in new and innovative ways. Dan’s deep understanding of how consumers can be entertained online will be invaluable as we continue to build Guitar Hero’s complementary growth channels, further establish the franchise as an innovative music platform and develop relationships with new business partners.”

Robert Kotick, Chief Executive Officer of Activision Blizzard noted, “I had the great pleasure of working with Dan during his tenure at Yahoo!. Dan has a rare combination of deep business expertise, entrepreneurial instincts and an incredible passion for music. We are looking forward to leveraging his proven online experience to build upon the billions of hours of entertainment we deliver each year in the Guitar Hero network.”

“I am extremely excited for this opportunity to work with the talented Guitar Hero team, which has transformed the interactive entertainment landscape,” said Mr. Rosensweig. “With a platform and content that universally engages a wide range of audiences, Guitar Hero has incredible growth potential. I look forward to continuing to develop Guitar Hero into an even more successful enterprise.”

Former Yahoo COO and current Quadrangle Group partner Dan Rosensweig (pictured here) will take over as CEO and president of Activision Blizzard’s powerful Guitar Hero franchise, according to sources close to the situation.

Rosensweig will run the hot gaming company’s division, which is located in Silicon Valley, the result of its purchase of RedOctane in 2006, source said.

He is well known to Activision (ATVI) Chairman and CEO Bobby Kotick, who served on the Yahoo board for many years when Rosensweig was a key exec there. Both Rosensweig and Kotick have since left Yahoo.

It’s an interesting move for Rosensweig, who has been working in private equity since his departure from Yahoo (YHOO) in late 2006.

His name has been bandied about for several high-profile Web positions of late, and many thought he might take a political job, given that he was one of many digital execs involved in helping elect President Barack Obama.

But the weak market for investments and Rosensweig’s longtime experience and interest in eventually returning to operations–along with his well-known passion for music–are the likeliest motivators for the move to Guitar Hero.

Sources said Rosensweig will start his new job at Guitar Hero–which Activision could announce as early as tomorrow–in several weeks.

Running a major consumer brand like Guitar Hero seems tailor-made for Rosensweig, who worked at CNET Networks and Ziff-Davis before Yahoo. In addition, the jovial exec is well-respected in Silicon Valley, giving Activision a much more prominent presence here.

And the energetic Kotick (pictured below with me and, yes, Paula Abdul of “American Idol”–don’t ask) has long talked about turbocharging the largely retail Guitar Hero business online, as a way to further grow the music phenom.

User-generated music, as well as a plethora of online transactions and social networking, have been promising new revenue opportunities, Kotick has said.

(See video highlights of my interview with Kotick below on that topic and more at last year’s D: All Things Digital conference.)

Overall, despite the weak economy and a cautious forecast going forward, the Santa Monica, Calif.-based Activision is growing, with revenues up in the last quarter, due in large part to the popularity of its Guitar Hero and Call of Duty videogames.

Its fast pace, in contrast to rival Electronic Arts (ERTS), has been helped by its merger with Vivendi SA’s Blizzard Entertainment last summer. Blizzard’s World of Warcraft online game is also one of the most popular multiplayer games in the world.

Here’s a highlights video from my interview with Kotick at D6:

Last night, Tapulous launched the second version of its hugely popular iPhone game app, Tap Tap Revenge.

With Tap Tap Revenge 2, the Silicon Valley start-up is hoping to keep up the momentum of its first success on the Apple (AAPL) service.

Tap Tap has been downloaded six million times, growing strongly with only a small amount of angel funding. The game has had other versions, but this is the first major upgrade.

In it, the TTR sequel got an updated look, new features, more and special songs and, most importantly, an intense focus on social gaming. In challenges, users can try to beat the scores of others.

Tapulous also makes other apps, like Twinkle, and it is hoping to knit them into an interconnected offering.

I visited the Tapulous offices in a former storefront in downtown Palo Alto, Calif., to interview co-founders Andrew Lacy and Bart Decrem to talk about the iPhone ecosystem and where it is all going.

Here’s the video:

And here are some screenshots of TTR2:

BoomTown really does hope that in some secret airport hangar right now Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang are meeting, in order to hammer out a fair search deal that will benefit them both.

I’d even insist that Yahoo’s noisiest board member, activist shareholder Carl Icahn, be there too, to make sure all sides were copacetic and there would be no last-minute switcheroos and backstabbings.

Because, long ago in galaxy far, far away, what is now going on between Microsoft (MSFT) and Yahoo (YHOO) would have seemed inane.

I am talking about this past January, of course, when the idea of the pair doing some kind of partnership together to fight off the aggressive march of Google (GOOG) would have been been easy to imagine and perhaps even to pull off by the pair of star-crossed tech companies.

Instead, they have been bickering and puffing their insufficient-to-the-task chests out at each other to little true effect. Meanwhile, back at the organic ranch, Google racks up more share of the search market by the minute and aims to do the same in mobile and video.

And while everyone is suffering in this economic meltdown, including Google, it’s clear that it’s better to be ready to rumble when it inevitably ends than it is to be still dithering over a deal that seems also inevitable but never seems to take shape.

The latest development in the story has been Microsoft’s hiring of a well-regarded former Yahoo search and online monetization star named Qi Lu. It was a great get by Microsoft, coming after another recent important hire of another Yahoo search exec, Sean Suchter.

And there are more to come, many sources tell me, as Microsoft puts the pressure on Yahoo by sucking the talent right out of the place.

Not a bad idea, especially if Microsoft is intent on spending big-time to strengthen its online bench to battle Google.

While he grabbed talent, Ballmer extended a bit of a wilted olive branch to Yahoo in an interview with The Wall Street Journal after the Lu hiring (thanks for nothing, Frank!).

Said Ballmer:

We’re fully prepared to compete without any partnership with Yahoo. We don’t need to act. Would it be advantageous for both of us to make a deal? Look, the fundamental basis for doing the search deal with Yahoo has to do with critical mass in the advertising marketplace. It doesn’t have to do with technology, or any of these other things, it really is a market phenomenon. Together we would have more advertisers….which means we’d have more relevant ads on our page. We’d have higher monetization levels possible in front of us because there would be more people bidding on more key words. Most importantly, Google would have perhaps a real credible competitor sooner.”

And the hiring if Lu and Suchter would surely help in an integration, as Ballmer also said in the Journal interview.

Microsoft needs all the muscle it can get because its money-losing efforts so far have not added up to much in the way of share or innovative influence. (And no, I will not ever admit Live Search Cashback is innovative or massively effective.)

The problem is that buying talent is just a tactic–a nice bit of thuggish mugging Microsoft has long been so adept at, to be sure–as one way to force Yahoo into a deal.

But it is not a strategy and in the end, does not give Microsoft what it needs, which is a serious stake in the game. By that, I mean real share, from 20 to 30 percent.

One person close to the situation said it perfectly to me recently: “Microsoft can hire every Yahoo engineer in the place and that still wouldn’t mean it would get to the kind of market share it needs to have to truly compete.”

Ballmer, of course, is now apparently in one of his famously stubborn moods, telling many people (who have recounted his sentiments to me) that he has tried and tried again, does not know who at Yahoo has the power to get a deal done and that he will only do a deal when Yahoo comes to Microsoft ready to go.

He is right about the first two. As to the third, I am perplexed why he would wait even a second and is instead–for once in his life–acting patient. Again, it kind of makes sense tactically, I guess, to drive a better deal.

But, if it is to work well and be a long-term successful partnership, Microsoft has to give Yahoo a decent deal anyway, right?

And what happened to the Ballmer who scared me a little bit when he almost jumped out of his seat at his most recent appearance at the sixth D: All Things conference, loudly declaring that Microsoft keeps “coming and coming and COMING!!!”

Where’d that guy go?

Instead you get this waiting-to-be-asked-to-the-prom stuff from Ballmer in the Journal interview:

I think good ideas are usually better done quickly than slowly, so it would probably be better for both us, and certainly for Yahoo, if we were to do it sooner than later. But at the end of the day, that would have [to] be something Yahoo would be as interested in as I have expressed our interest.”

As for Yahoo, I am not sure what to say, except its options are running out fast.

While its efforts at innovating search are promising–Yahoo’s BOSS (Build Your Own Search Service) this week showed nice traction, with 10 million queries a day for the customized search products–it is still not enough in the face of Google’s power and Microsoft’s financial heft.

But, according to sources and also several people Yang and Yahoo Chairman Roy Bostock have spoken to recently, there is still a debate among directors as to whether a search sale or partnership with Microsoft should be struck.

I think that’s why Icahn has been so mouthy of late in the press about the importance of doing a search deal. If it were all lined up and ready to go, he’d be as silent as a church mouse.

“Carl likes to agitate any way he can and now that he is a director, he has to be more careful,” said one person who knows him well. “This talking it up is his way of trying to push it through, since he still does not have board support.”

According to numerous sources, in fact, Yahoo leadership is worried about the leverage it would have in doing a deal with Microsoft, and some think a merger with AOL needs to be completed first.

Actually, if Yahoo did manage to do a search deal of almost any kind with Microsoft first, the impact would surely lift its stock–even now–and give it the valuation needed to complete the AOL deal.

That’s definitely the feeling now at AOL owner Time Warner (TWX), said many sources, which dearly would prefer that Yahoo strike a Microsoft search deal first, get its stock closer to a decent level, appoint a new Yahoo CEO and deliver a clearer idea of its path before Time Warner commits to selling its online assets to Yahoo.

“Yahoo has trouble making decisions,” said one source there, who acknowledges AOL’s own weaknesses readily. “So we’re not entirely confident in placing our fate with them.”

Indeed, clarity is always a preferred state, and many I talked to think that getting there would be easier than either Yahoo or Microsoft thinks.

“It really could be done quickly if they would only stop plotting all the chess moves and do something,” said one source. “This is not a game.”

No, it is definitely not, because a game is supposed to be fun, and watching this unfold is anything but that.

It’s not even a game, according to Ballmer in the Journal interview, at the very end.

Tellingly, he compared the struggle with Yahoo to an old cliché of a story about outrunning a bear (it used to be an AOL exec favorite too, so I know it well):

I don’t know if you know the old story about the two guys out in the woods who see a bear, and one guy says, boy, we’d better really run fast, or that bear is going to get us. We’ve got to run faster than the bear does. And the other guy says, no, I’ve just got to run faster than you do. In this economy, maybe that’s the right way to think about it.”

Years ago, Ballmer said almost exactly the same thing to me and others present about distant No. 3 Microsoft not necessarily having to catch No. 1 (Google) if it could chase and knock off No. 2 (Yahoo) and grab that spot instead.

Strap on your sneakers, Yahoo.

Please see this disclosure related to me and Google.

BoomTown admits herewith that I am officially a teenage boy, given how much I really like Atom’s Kung-Fu Election site, an online fighting game for the general election.

In advance of tonight’s much-anticipated debate between the vice-presidential candidates–Democratic Sen. Joe Biden and Republican Gov. Sarah Palin–here’s a video of them duking it out digitally in hiiii-ya style.

Of course, Palin gets the Xena-Warrior-Princess look with a hockey stick and gun as weapons, while the sharp-tongued Biden gets a big sword and is dressed like some refugee from “Shogun.”

Let’s hope the verbal sparring to come is as gripping.

Here’s the video:

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