The Wall Street Journal have chipped in with the tale of an iPad 3 arrival in early 2012. According to the WSJ, Apple is “working with component suppliers and its assembler in Asia for the trail production of its next generation iPad from October”.
People familiar with the situation claim that components such as display panels and chips for a new iPad are currently been ordered in preparation for a early 2012 iPad 3 launch.
An iPad 3 launch in the first 3 or so months of 2012 is in line with the current release cycle of the previous two iPad releases. The original iPad was launched in April 2010 with the the iPad 2 in March 2011.
It is expected that the iPad 3 will boast a high resolution display of 2048*1536 compared to the current resolution of 1024*768 seen in the iPad 2. The hike in resolution represents a four fold increase in the the number of pixels in the iPad 3.