"The larger resolution should provide the company's app developers more convenience, while all future applications will be able to run under any of Apple's machines including the 27-inch iMac," Gardnersaid.

Apple's iPad 3 is also said to run on a new quad-core A6 chip, which doubles the power and speed of the A5 chip currently found in the iPad 2 and iPhone 4S. The next iPad will also get a better front-facing camera for FaceTime and a rear camera equal to or better than the 8-megapixel camera on the iPhone 4S.

One report said that while the iPad 3 will not be a "revolutionary device," Apple will "take advantage of the iPad 3 launch to slash the price of its iPad 2 to US$399." Apple currently sells the iPad 2 at a base price of $499, but by lowering the prices of its tablets, Apple can better compete against cheaper tablet rivals such as the Amazon Kindle Fire, the Barnes Noble Nook and other tablets running Android 's mobile operating system. It'll even need to look ahead to Google's tablet, which will reportedly debut in the next six months, according to the company's chairman Eric Schmidt.

Apple, based in Cupertino, Calif., has sought to bring high technology to the masses since the company's inception in 1976. In October, Apple lowered the price of its high-endiPhone4 to $99, and made its two-year-old iPhone 3GS model completely free with a two-year contract. In the same way Apple's cheaper iPhone offerings can now compete with other cheap cell phones on the market, a higher-end iPad means older iPads will be more accessible from a pricing standpoint.

Beyond the February and March release dates, Apple's Taiwanese supply chain believes the company will release a second tablet in October, which is said to be a 9.7-inch "iPad 4." The iPad 4 will reportedly upgrade its hardware specs throughout the device, and come with "killer applications" to compete with Android or Windows-based tablets. Older reports said this iPad would be 7.85 inches, which would be similarly sized to e-readers made by Amazon and Barnes Noble.

Code for the iPad 3 and iPad 4 was discovered in November when Apple released its iOS 5.1 beta update to developers, which accidentally revealed references to a next-gen iPhoneand two next-gen iPads, internally named iPhone 5,1, iPad 2,4 and iPad 3,3, respectively. The iPad listed as "iPad 2,4" is likely the upgraded iPad coming in February, while the "iPad 3,3," is believed to be the completely new device

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