NEWS APP, MONDAY: Following the predicted smash success of the iPad 2, Apple has not hesitated to announce the release of the iPad 3 in June, and iPad 4 in September.

Steve Jobs’ ‘year of iPad 2’ prediction during the announcement of the new tablet was backed up by no less than three PowerPoint slides, cementing the claim into the realms of near-certainty.

The only dissent comes from the Chinese community, who had been under the impression that 2011 would be the Year of the Rabbit. Having no slides to support this, however, the Chinese claim is thought of by industry heavyweights as ‘ridiculous’.

However, as industry writers have been quick to point out, near-certainty is not certainty, regardless of the number of PowerPoint slides. In the technological world, businesses like Apple have to be quick off the mark to head off the many, many competitors (and rabbits) that swarm around them.

Just as Apple’s iPhone remains challenged by hundreds of other viable competitors, the tablet market too has been flooded with copycats. With the release of the new Motorola Xoom and other devices (RIM Playbook, Dell Streak 7), Apple has gone from having a 90% share of the tablet market to having only a 90% share of the tablet market.

While some experts think that the announcement of the iPad 3 is a knee-jerk response to some serious competition, others believe that the iPad 3 release is in line with the natural Apple life-cycle, judging by the myriad of really, really different iPods and really, really different iPhones that have been released.

New features of the iPad 3 are not confirmed yet, but strong speculation suggests that there will be a new range of SmartCovers in different colours for the device, along with a set of flashing LED headphones with a matching HDMI cable; all available to be purchased separately.