iPad 3
iPad 3 Release Date: Apple Reportedly Set for March 23 Launch in Germany with Siri on Board Apple

With the iPad 2 coming up to its first anniversary, all eyes are pointing towards Apple in anticipation of an updated model, tipped to be called either the iPad 3 or iPad 2S.

The latest bout of rumours and hearsay focusses (sorry) on the iPad's two cameras and how they will be improved for the next model, which will probably be announced in January and released in March.

Apple blog iLounge has claimed that "Both cameras are getting upgrades. Front goes HD, rear becomes iPhone 4/4S-like (bigger)."

The blog also believes: "Body of the next iPad is, as we previously reported, getting just a little thicker to accommodate new parts - little = 1mm give or take," and "Curve radiuses on the body will change only a little to accommodate the added thickness, not dramatically. Think iPad 2 Pro, not a redesign."

This most recent speculation has added yet more fuel to the iPad 3 fire, which has been raging for several weeks as the iPad 2 gets closer to celebrating its first birthday: Apple typically updates its iOS devices every 12 months.

In late 2011, a Taiwanese newspaper reported that Apple was rushing to get the iPad 3 ready in time to be released on February 24 - the birthday of the late Apple co-founder, Steve Jobs.

Editor of technology website Gizmodo UK, Kat Hannaford, told the Metro newspaper on January 6 that the next iPad might not be the big update everyone is hoping for, and instead will be an interim update - as the iPhone 4S was from the 4 - and will be called either the iPad 2S or iPad HD, in a nod towards the predicted super-high resolution retina screen.

"There's a chance the iPad 3 might be branded as the iPad HD or iPad 2S in keeping with the iPhone 3GS and 4S, which were only incremental updates over the previous generations," Hannaford said.

If this turns out to be true, and the third iPad is actually more of a 2S, then maybe the iPad we're all looking for won't be available until the iPad 4 - and Digitimes believes that this will arrive later in 2012.

The rumour mill believes that "Apple will ship the so-called 'iPad 3' with a full HD display in March and then 'iPad 4' - named so by its component suppliers - with killer applications in October, according to industry sources in Taiwan.

"But a true battle for market share will arrive in the second half of the year when Apple ships its iPad 4 in October, about the time when Microsoft releases its Window 8 and Intel unveils its Clover Trail-W platform, the sources commented," Digitimes continued.