Apple to unveil the iPad HD, not the iPad 3?

One of the most persistent rumors about Apple's next tablet is that it won't be the iPad 3 as many of us have been anticipating. Instead, according to recent buzz, we could be seeing the iPad HD launched by Tim Cook and co. on March 7.

Both VentureBeat and CNET have reasons to believe this will be the case, thanks to statements from their reliable sources. The iPad HD points to a big upgrade on the display of Apple's tablet. The current iPad 2 has no Retina Display (despite old rumors saying it will have one) and boasts a resolution of 1,024 x 768. The iPad HD? It's expected to have a high-res display of 2,048 x 1,536 pixels. That means it will be able to run vids on 1080p HD at full resolution (1,920 x 1,080). In line with this, there's also a previous report from Gizmodo which says Apple's partners on the peripheral front, Griffin and Belkin, had cases labeled "iPad HD."

Does the iPad HD tag make sense? Given the upgraded display, yes it does obviously. Now here's where it gets a bit more interesting. According to VentureBeat, the next iPad might not have the quad-core A6 chip and instead will sport a better version of Apple’s dual-core A5 processor. If that's the case then the iPad HD will make even more sense since it will give more emphasis on the souped-up display rather than on the upgraded but not quad-core CPU. We think if the A6 chip is part of the deal then that's the time it will most likely be called iPad 3.

Whew! In any case, we'll know soon enough. We have this to say, though. If indeed Apple will unveil the iPad HD, we won't be the least bit surprised. Remember last year's iPhone 4S launch?   

Check out the gallery below for our round-up of Apple iPad 3/HD rumors