According to an All Things D report, Apple could be gearing up to unveil the next-generation iPad March 2 at the famous Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco. If that holds true, then media invitations should be imminent.
To those who care intensely about this kind of stuff–which would be pretty much everyone in the tech ecosystem–Apple will hold its much-anticipated event on March 2, where the tech giant seems poised to unveil a new version of its hugely successful iPad, according to multiple sources.
According to several sources close to the situation, the Wednesday date in a little more than a week is firm and will take place in San Francisco, the scene of many such Apple events.
In that case, the venue is likely to be the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.
Previous rumors had pegged a March unveiling date for the tablet. In a Feb. 9 posting, Daring Fireball’s John Gruber circulated a theory in which Apple whipped the curtain away from the iPad 2 sometime in March, ahead of an early-April shipping window, and then followed that up with an iPad 3 in September.
Current iPad theories suggest the device will be lighter and smaller than the original, with a front-facing camera for video conferencing, more memory and a boosted graphics processor. Some reports have suggested the device will lack a Retina Display or similar high-resolution screen. “Our sources say Apple has requested that manufacturers begin work on displays with that resolution for the iPad 3,” IDC research manager Tom Mainelli told PC World, following a DigiTimes report that the next iPad would boast a resolution of 2,048 by 1,536.
Through the end of last quarter, Apple has sold more than 15 million iPads. Apple’s new tablet, however, will face ferocious competition for the consumer market from Motorola, Dell, and Samsung, among others. Since the iPad’s introduction last March, however, Apple has basically had the market for consumer-focused tablets to itself.
While a new iPad won’t be a surprise, however, Apple Chief Steve Jobs could make news merely by stepping on stage. Jobs, who had cancer surgery in 2004 and a liver transplant in 2009, was spotted by paparazzi earlier this month visiting the Stanford Cancer Center, near Jobs Palo Alto home, looking gaunt and unsteady.
