iPad 3 Release Date Rumored to be March 2012 “At the Earliest,” New 30-pin Dock Connector Included

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Now that the iPhone 4S has been released and it’s available in seven plus twenty-two markets already we can move on and focus on the rumors that target the next upcoming Apple product refreshes. One of them is the iPad 3, which we naturally assume it’s coming in spring 2012, just like its predecessors did.

A recent report from Japan-based Makotakara, a source that has been proved reliable in the past when reporting Apple-related rumors, says that Apple will launch the new iPad in March 2012 at the earliest.

Why not sooner? It appears it all has to do with production capabilities in China. The Chinese New Year is scheduled for January 23, with national holidays taking place between January 22-28. According to the “reliable Asian source,” Chinese factories will start iPad 3 manufacturing in late January, therefore Apple may want to delay the launch until there’s plenty of stock to go around.

When it comes to specs and features the blog reveals that the new iPad 3 will sport the same display currently found on the iPad 2 but it is not known at this time whether the next iPad will keep the current resolution or get a Retina Display.

What’s most interesting though is the fact that Apple plans to change the 30-pin dock connector currently used on all its iOS devices. The new iPad 3 dock connector will still have 30 pins and carry the same electricity specification but it will be smaller than the traditional design.

Why would Apple do such a thing? Well, since we’re looking at a rumor so far let’s look at some hypothesis:

1) Design. There comes a time when dealing with iPad rumors when someone will say that the next-gen iPad will have two 30-pin ports in order to let users dock it in both landscape and portrait modes. History showed that doesn’t happen. A smaller port would look better in case Apple would want to use two of them, but still that can’t be the right explanation, can it?

2) Design. Again. From a different perspective. Maybe Apple wants to make the iPad 3 even thinner than the current model. Therefore the internal components will be further minimized, or rearranged in order to better deal with the more crowded space. If that’s the case then maybe a smaller port may be in order, but how much space would it really free up?

3) Spite. Remember those iPhone 5 cases that were supposedly leaked by accessory makers that had access to an iPhone 5 prototype? Remember how recent rumors suggest that Steve Jobs may have been seriously involved in the next-gen iPhone project aka iPhone 5, which some say that it will indeed feature a teardrop design? Well, what if Apple is trying to pay the “favor” – leaking the iPhone 5 design – back to accessory makers by changing a little detail like the 30-pin dock? All of a sudden certain accessories that were compatible with the previous iPads, and other iOS devices, will not be compatible anymore with the iPad 3. And they will have to invest extra cash, however insignificant, or important, to update their accessories. Of course, users would find such a detail really annoying since they’d have to pay extra cash for new accessories.

These are all speculations based on an unconfirmed report, so let’s pick up a grain of salt and wait for the iPad 3 rumor flood that will hit in the following months. Also, your opinion is welcomed in the comments section below!