Richard Gardner Sources Pin iPad 3 Launch for February

The endless stream of ‘research’ notes has churned up another iPad 3 predicament this week with Richard Gardner saying in a note to clients on Thursday that the next iPad is to arrive in February.

Gardner cites “several sources” that told him the next iPad will have “a screen with double the resolution of the current model,” and that it will drop in February, according to a Business Insider piece.

He also says, "there do not appear to be any significant technical hurdles remaining" that may come between now and the launch of the enhanced tablet computer. Gardner estimate’s for Apple’s December quarter include sales of 12-13 million iPads.

A report from Japan earlier this week said the next Apple iPad will be thicker than the current model, seemingly corroborating an older report that said exactly the same thing.

The iPad 3 is expected to boast a number of enhancements both on the inside and on the outside.

Under the hood, analysts say there will be a new A-series chip powering the tablet with as many as four processing cores and double the memory of the current line of tablets.

The iPad 2 is already a beast graphics-wise but it appears the Cupertino tech giant is not resting on its laurels. Nor should it, if Tim Cook & Co. want to stay ahead of the game next year, and the year to follow.

2012 should also see the highly-anticipated iPhone 5 released. If history is any indication, many of the new technologies Apple plans to dump in the iPad 3 will also be implemented in the next iPhone.

If Apple is indeed planning a February launch for the iPad 3, this would break Apple’s annual refresh cycle for the tablet computer by at least a month.