It seemed like just yesterday that Apple was announcing the iPad 2 would be coming out and people clamored to get one. And now only a short time later, we now have the iPad 3, which is certainly going to upset some of the fans who will no doubt feel a bit cheated. But what is the iPad 3 really?

A better name for this thing would have been the iPad 2.5, just a slight upgrade from the iPad 2, but not what we would call a full revision worthy rework, certainly not as extensive as the difference between 1 and 2. In all honesty, the only real differences are the higher resolution 2048×1536 Retina Display, a five megapixel camera in front, a faster A5X dual core processor and a way to get it working with 4G networks. That’s pretty much it. Oh, and for fans of Siri, the virtual assistant is no where to be seen in this one.

The official release date is March 16, 2012, but stock is already going fast due to pre-orders. There is rumor that the AT&T version is already sold out. If you are buying an iPad for the first time with this third revision, you can pre-order the unit directly from Apple right now. But if you already own an iPad or iPad 2, you may want to check out your local electronic stores. Radio Shack is offering rebates of $350 for the iPad 2 and $175 for the original iPad. And if you have one of their cards, you can also get a $50 mail in rebate as well. Other stores will probably be doing the same thing, so it pays to check around. But perhaps your best bet is not to bother with the give backs at all and sell your unit on Ebay or Craigslist, where the demand is still pretty high. Especially since it’s not like this was a step up.