New iPad anticipated in March

The latest version of Apple's iPad tablet will launch in early March, according to blog and media reports this week.

The technology blog All Things D first cited "sources" on Feb. 9 who said that Apple would hold a special event in San Francisco during the first week of March to "debut the successor to the iPad 2."

On Tuesday, the Wall Street Journal also cited the first week of March as the window for the announcement, "according to another person briefed on the matter." It added that the device will run on the next-generation 4G networks of U.S. carriers Verizon Wireless and AT&T, which use LTE technology. LTE is several times faster than the previous generation of wireless technology, HSPA+. In Canada, Rogers, Bell and Telus all have LTE networks in some major urban centres.

On Monday, the technology blog iMore pinpointed March 7 as the date of the launch, citing "sources that have been reliable in the past."

"Along with the 20481536 Retina display, the iPad 3 will feature a quad-core Apple A6 system-on-a-chip," blogger Rene Ritchie wrote.

The iPad 2 has a 1024-by-768-pixel display and a dual-core Apple A5 chip.