Rumor: iPad 3 and iPad 4 both launching this year

If you were craving another Apple rumor, here’s an outlandish one for you.

Industry insider Digitimes, which has an uncertain record of being both spot on and way off in its reports, is claiming that it’s heard in the Apple manufacturing circles that two new iPad models will be released this year.

“Apple will ship the so-called ‘iPad 3’ with a full HD display in March and then ‘iPad 4’ – named so by its component suppliers – with killer applications in October, according to industry sources in Taiwan,” the publication wrote.

This smells of 2011, when at the end of the year there was solid but unbelieved rumors that Apple would release a new iPad in time for the holidays.

The same thing happened when some expected two iPhones to be announced at the same time – in the end there was only the iPhone 4S.

Besides, although Apple is known for constantly releasing new products and making their last iterations quickly obsolete, to release two iPads in a calendar year seems ridiculous to most.

Beyond all that, the iPad 3 is supposed to be something of a technological marvel, reportedly including a high-definition display that would blow any other tablet out of the water.

So while this rumor seems unlikely for now, but both DigiTimes and Apple have been known to surprise us in the past.