Good things are said to come to those who wait. We hesitate to apply the same logic to the iPad 3. With all the drama from the stepping down of Steve Jobs as Apple’s CEO and the undeniable delay of the next iPhone, it seems comical that now there is a dispute whether the iPad 3 would be released this fall with the iOS 5. This gives ample time for everybody. Consumers can ponder the wisdom of their purchase of the iPad2, while competitors can spend more time how to reverse engineer the iPad 1.

The release of the iPad 3 has long been kept in the hush hush. Originally set for release in the first quarter of 2012, the people working on this highly-anticipate piece of tech suddenly find they are shocked. Consumers now seem to don’t care at all. They’re happy buying the iPad 2, which appears to be on everyone’s wish list. This calm will continue until people once again start asking the question of whether to buy or to wait.

When do you think the iPad 3 is coming?

The 5th beta version of the upcoming iOS 5 from Apple has been released yesterday (Saturday) and many of us are excited not only at the fact that this means Apple could be close to releasing the new OS but also the fact that they are releasing it at the weekend means they probably have a tight deadline to stick to.  What could the deadline be….

As you may know, the development team at apple usually like to keep their release schedule to weekday business hours, the fact that they have pushed this 5th beta version out on the weekend is something quite of a rare occurance.  It’s strange that they didnt just wait till Monday to release this, a few days really isnt that much of a difference, the teams must be working against a pretty tight clock.

The iOS 5 will power Macs as well as the portable devices such as iPhone, iPod Touch and the iPad which means it must be ready when the new hardware is ready for release.  Seeing as they are pushing this release out on the weekend means that the new hardware is probably soon to be released.

Apple can get feedback on the new beta and iron out any bugs, most of the time there is less of a rush as updates for an OS can be rolled out easily in 5.0.1 a few weeks after launch but its slightly different with portables running the OS as its slightly harder to distribute updates and a bug in the OS could cause a lot of problems for consumers and reflect badly on Apple.

So it looks like, while there hasnt been an official date set for the ipad 3, there is certainly something penned in on Mr Job’s calendar as the the engineers at Apple appear to be battling against a finite timeframe.

Checkout the full list of release notes for iOS 5 Beta 5 here

If this fall were really to be something special, I hope to find more than falling leaves and early Christmas commercials. The release date of the iPad 3 may be witnessed sooner than expected. If the iPad 3 would really come out this fall, then you can bet it will be sporting the highly anticipated iOS 5 operating system. Not only this, but the “iPad HD” will appear with an HD screen and 4G LTE networking, along with other goodies any iPad user will surely enjoy. If these were all true, then iPad 2 users will experience both joy and anger at the same time. Anger at the short time their new iPads now become things of the past, and joy at the prospect of a new iPad. Why the mixed emotions? Here’s why:

iPad 3 Comes with iOS 5

Although iPad 3 appearing this fall is still speculative, whether it is coming with iOS 5 is not. Apple claims iPad 3 will be out before snow comes. Although we’ve seen some of iOS 5′s tricks and treats, still one might wonder why Apple is still quiet about iOS 5 and iPad 3’s relationship.  A smart guess says it’s related to the hardware.

iPad 3 is HD!

iPad 2 didn’t quite capture the moment, unlike the iPhone 4 whose screen displayed a resolution far greater than the human eye can imagine or detect. Calling the next iPad as iPad HD is an obvious indicator that the screen will be greatly improved this time. Better resolution means better gaming and better detail in apps, not to mention HD movie viewing experience. Whether the iPad HD would mimic the success of the iPhone 4 in terms of display prowess is another story.

4G LTE with the iPad 3

With AT&T and Verizon betting on the marketing farm on 4G LTE, Apple could add 4G compatibility to the existing 3G framework. Thus, creating another selling point to the iPad 3. As if the better resolution capability isn’t a good enough reason.

A5 and the iPad 3

Since the iPad 2 already runs on the dual-core A5 processor Apple developed, there’s no reasons why the iPad 3 should not run on an A6, or at least a juiced up A5. Apple could always clock the iPad 3 faster. After all, I wouldn’t want a newer device whose only feature of being fast is in its name.