March 2, 2011: Apple Inc. CEO Steve Jobs introduces the iPad 2 on stage during an event in San Francisco, California. (REUTERS/Beck Diefenbach)
Apple plans an event in early March to launch the iPad 3, AllThingsD reported Thursday.
Citing unnamed sources, the Wall Street Journal's popular tech news site said the company would hold one of its trademark events during the first week in March, presumably at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, Apple's go-to location for this type of event.
The launch event would not necessarily mark availability of the iPad 3, though AllThingsD speculated that it would be available a week or so after the event, following the timing of the iPad 2 launch.
Rumors have swirled about the next-generation version of the groundbreaking tablet computer for months, often spurred by news from Taiwanese suppliers or people familiar with the supply chain.
So what will it look like? What sort of cool tech specs will we see? Rumors have suggested monster graphics features thanks to nVidia chips and superfast processing speeds thanks to quad-core chips from ARM or Texas Instruments. AllThingsD offers a similar analysis, again citing unnamed sources.
The iPad 3 will be similar in form factor to the iPad 2, but running a much faster chip, sporting an improved graphics processing unit, and featuring a higher resolution, 2,048×1,536 Retina Display — or something close to it, the site said.
An Apple spokeswoman declined to comment on the event.
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