As Apple Inc gears up for the crush of customers expected for Saturday’s iPad launch, employees who staff its retail stores are just as curious about the tablet as the fans who will line up outside.

Apple store workers say they have yet to see or touch the iPad, even though the launch is just days away and they are being trained and encouraged to talk about Apple’s newest device with customers.

“We haven’t seen it; we never do” before a product is launched, said one employee, who asked not to be identified because workers are barred from speaking with the media. “Every store employee I know, including the managers, they haven’t seen it.”

To get accurate projections for Intel Corp, Wedbush Morgan analyst Patrick Wang often finds himself hopping on a plane to Asia.

Wang — who normally crafts complex mathematical models and pores over financial statements — finds, in Intel’s case, it helps to use his fluent Chinese to gather information directly from its customers: top computer manufacturers in the Orient.

“They’re just such a large semiconductor company and to get color in terms of the overall scale, you need that,” he said.

Wang and many other analysts’ predicament may underscore why the world’s top chip maker has beaten expectations in six of the last eight quarters. More than 80 percent of its sales are abroad. Analysts estimate over half its revenue comes from less transparent markets such as China, Africa and India.