Industry expects Apple to announce iPad 2 March 2

On March 2, in San Francisco, Apple is expected to unveil Version 2 of the iPad. Since the iPad’s debut in April 2010, it’s racked up sales of nearly 15 million units. Earlier, analysts predicted that Apple would release iPad 2 in June, a window during which competitors in the marketplace, especially the Android Honeycomb-based tablets, would have time to gain a stronger footing.

The iPad 2 is expected to be thinner, lighter and feature a better display and speakers, faster processor, more RAM, advanced graphics capabilities, a front-facing camera and Facebook video chat support. AllThingsD’s Kara Swisher, who broke the news of the March 2 debut, also reported that iPad 2 may be powered by one of Qualcomm’s multimode chips and run on both GSM-based and CDMA-based networks around the world.

At the same event, Apple may also unveil a new version of Final Cut Pro and, possibly, announce the availability of the Lion OS X.