Rumors of Apple’s iPad 3 have been on the web since earlier this year, as early as the day that Apple announced the iPad 2, however, very little has been revealed about the 3rd generation device until now. On Friday, an image on a Korean forum depicted what appeared to be two displays, one claimed to be from the current iPad 2 and the other, the next generation iPad 3. The image on top is believed to be from the iPad 2 and the bottom from the iPad 3.

Both are 9.7″ in diagonal, although, the bottom screen has a different configuration for the attached cabling, leading speculators to believe that it is entirely for a new device. The current iPad 2 contains 3 brown cables from the screen to the circuit board, where as the iPad 3 display contains 3 wide ribbon cables that might be used for data. The new iPad 3 is also expected to include a higher resolution screen of 2048×1536, roughly 3 times the number of pixels in the current generation iPad.

The iPad 2 was rumored to support the Retina Display, however in order to preserve the 10 hour battery life and keep the costs low Apple did not include the high resolution screen. The leaked photo is the best source of speculation out there at this point, with very little to no evidence of an existing iPad 3.

Rumors also suggest that Apple is switching to a new type of display from a company named IGZO, which allows higher resolutions without sacrificing battery life. The iPad 3 is expected to be released during the first half of 2012, although recent reports also suggest a Fall 2012 time frame.

{via MacRumors}