Apple iPad 3 launch? Press invited to March 7 event

Apple on Tuesday emailed invitations to members of the press for what is expected to be the launch of the iPad 3 on March 7.

The invitation to the event in San Francisco doesn’t say specifically that the next iPad will make its debut, but does feature an image of a hand touching the iPad’s Calendar app icon for March 7, along with the message, “We have something you really have to see. And touch.”

The Calendar app icon is between the Maps and Keynote app icons.

Just as with Apple’s previous two iPad launch events, the presentation will take place at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.

The invite, first reported by the Wall Street Journal, would seem to confirm the rumor, first reported by the website iMore, that the third-generation iPad was about to launch.

A spring launch of what many believe will be called the iPad 3 would fall in line with the timing for the first two generations of Apple tablets.

The iPad 2 was unveiled on March 2, 2011, by then-Chief Executive Steve Jobs, who came back from his medical leave to unveil the device at the Yerba Buena Center. The iPad 2 went on sale the next week.

Apple’s first iPad was unveiled by Jobs on Jan. 27, 2010, at the Yerba Buena Center, and arrived in stores April 3 of that year.

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