Will You Buy an iPad 3 in Five Weeks?

Thousands will wait in line. Several will stay overnight. Some might even camp outside an Apple Store for a week. Will you be one of them?

If not, don't expect to get an iPad 3 this spring. The highly anticipated device is expected to be unveiled during the first week of March,

reported this week. All things likely, the unveiling will be followed by a one- or two-week window of anticipation, which will conclude with the release of the most anticipated tablet of the year. When the iPad 2 was released, it shattered sales expectations and frustrated consumers worldwide as they struggled to track down the snazzy iDevice. If the

prove to be true, the third iPad will come with a battery that is

the capacity of the original. That alone could ensure that first-day sales figures surpass the iPad 2. If nothing else, the iPad 3 should have a better processor, some amusing app demonstrations, and a few other enhancements that will excite most Apple enthusiasts. According to the

, one Apple employee claims that the screen will be “truly amazing.” But those aren't the only reasons why the iPad 3 will be massively successful. Unlike the iPhone 4S, which was released in a very crowded market and had to compete against other hugely popular phones (including its own predecessor, the standard iPhone 4), the iPad 3 doesn't have any real competition. Surely there will be some consumers who don't buy an iPad 3 because they already own an iPad 2. But the market is still very young. There is plenty of room for Apple to sell 20 or 30 million new iPads in 2012. Inevitably, most of them will be iPad 3s.

Not surprisingly, Twitter is buzzing with iPad 3 chatter this morning. “iPad 3 is going to be available ASAP after announcement, guaranteed,”

Jonathan S. Geller, the President and Editor-in-Chief of BGR. “I hope [the] iPad 3 does have a retina display,” said

. “Soon as u buy iPad 3, apple will announce iPad 3S,”

tweeted this morning. Twitter is also flooded with links to a

interview with an analyst who insists that Apple will release a seven-inch iPad at some point in the future, but not necessarily in March.

Aside from feature predictions and sales expectations (which are high), consumers are also eager to know if Apple will be able to supply enough units to meet demand. Having firsthand experience with the iPad 2 shipping nonsense, I can tell you that Apple Stores trickled out new units as if they were being tortured every time a new tablet was sold. There were excuses here (“We only have the Verizon

model because the AT&T

iPads are manufactured in another factory”) and lies there (“We just pulled these two iPads off the truck, and we don't know when more will arrive”). I have always been under the belief that Apple did all of this on purpose to increase demand. While there has yet to be any concrete proof to support this belief, there have been a few

that suggest the company is indeed being deceptive. Will Apple do the same with the iPad 3? While anything is possible, it does not seem likely. The demand for the iPad 3 is so enormous that the company may incur a shortage whether it wants one or not. The real test, however, will be in whether or not Apple allows consumers to pre-order the device. If Apple does and consumers still go home empty handed on launch day, they will have no one to blame but themselves.

While most of the tech world braces for the launch of the iPad 3, Amazon

is trying to figure out how it can stay competitive going forward. From a consumer standpoint, the original $200 Kindle Fire was a decent, lower-cost alternative to the $500 iPad. When the iPad 3 is released, however, Apple is expected to drop the iPad 2's price to $300. Some analysts predict that the iPad 2 could be sold for as low as $250. At that price, the Kindle Fire would lose its

in the tablet wars. If Apple releases a seven-inch tablet, how will the Kindle Fire 2 be able to compete? Will Amazon be forced to lower its price? Right now, we aren't sure if the company is

or

money every Kindle Fire it sells. Either way, it is unlikely that Amazon could afford to charge less than $200 for the presumably titled Kindle Fire 2. But it might be forced to charge a lower price since Apple isn't likely to charge too much for a seven-inch iPad. And while I personally have a hard time believing that Apple will release a smaller tablet, the reality is that if the company moves in this direction, the competition will suffer. It's already suffering (for the most part), which is one of the many reasons why the iPad has been able to maintain its status as the dominant tablet. Judging by the hype and anticipation for the next iPad, consumers should not expect this to change.