One of these devices is a tablet, called TouchPad. Of course, the main problem is that the planned availability of the TouchPad isn’t until this summer. According to TechCrunch and Daring Fireball , Apple may be planning to unveil the iPad 3 later this fall. “Summer feels like a long time away. If my theory is right, they’re not only going to be months behind the iPad 2, but if they slip until late summer, they might bump up against the release of the iPad 3. And not only did they announce this with a distant ship date, they did it with no word on pricing,” he wrote on his site. We’ve now heard that this “fall surprise” is related to this would-be iPad 3. We don’t have any more concrete information beyond that. But, as of right now, the plan is apparently to release one iteration of the iPad in the next few weeks. And then blow the doors open with another new version in the fall. (Maybe the “Palm” brand isn’t dead? The iPad 2 will likely still be ahead of those products. [...] But Apple has a history of not resting on their laurels. That’s perhaps the key reason why they’ve been so successful in recent years. And that’s exactly why they strike with the iPad 3 in the fall. Given that the original iPad went on sale in April, Apple would be expected to release the second version of the tablet around the same time a year later.
– Rumor in the tech world has it that Steve Jobs will be bringing out as many tablets as Moses this year. Apple hasn't even admitted that the iPad 2 exists—although plenty of details have been leaked—but the iPad 3 could well be on its way already this fall, according to TechCrunch. Sources say that the iPad 2 will be available within weeks, to be followed by Apple's "fall surprise"—a third version of the tablet, likely incorporating the iPhone 4's retina-like display. Apple is known for sticking fairly rigidly to product development cycles, notes the Huffington Post, so why bring out two iPad models within 6 months? It could be an attempt to outflank HP's upcoming TouchPad tablet, speculates John Gruber at Daring Fireball. "If my theory is right, they're not only going to be months behind the iPad 2, but if they slip until late summer, they might bump up against the release of the iPad 3," he writes.