NEW YEAR, NEW tech products and already the rumour mill is spinning with speculation about the gadgets that we will see in the shops in 2012, the most anticipated of which is likely to be Apple’s new version of the iPad.

With two generations of the revolutionary tablet already behind them some are speculating that Apple’s third version of the iPad will be released in March. They include Brian Marshall from ISI Group analysts.

“We don’t expect the next product to come out until the month of March and that will be the iPad 3 in our opinion,” he told Bloomberg Television.

Other speculation is of a January release at the iWorld or Macworld convention but as the Washington Post notes, Apple has not attended this event since 2009 so that would appear to be wide of the mark.

There’s also talk of a February release to conincide with deceased co-founder Steve Jobs’s birthday but whatever the rumour most analysts are agreed the next generation iPad will be released in the first quarter of this year.

Apple is holding a mysterious press event in a few weeks time although Business Insider notes that this is not considered to be for a hardware launch.

But perhaps more important than the launch date, what will be the tablet’s main features? Well ZDNet says rather pessimistically and uncharacteristically that as yet we know “nothing” of what the new device will feature.

There will be the usual speculation of a faster processor, different sizes, different shape and better cameras but most of the current rumours centre on whether or not there will be a HD screen.

Digi Times expands on that talk by stating that:  ”Apple will utilize IGZO panels from Sharp in order to upgrade the display resolution of the new tablets to full HD level” but that’s according to ‘sources’.

Expect plenty of more ‘sources’ to reveal details, accurate and not so accurate, in the coming weeks and months.