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There have been rumors circulating that Apple will be releasing the next iPad 3 which will debut on March 7. This time around it will be 4G ready, and it will be available through Verizon and AT&T. The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday. What excites Apple fanatics is that Apple is testing a smaller, 8-inch iPad to compete with Amazon's 7-inch Kindle Fire. The smaller iPad would also come at a lower price than Apple's standard 10-inch model.

The iPad 3 is rumored to have 2048-by-1536-pixel Retina display, a quad-core A6 processor and 4G LTE networking. The system-on-a-chip A6 would double the power of the iPad 2's A5 dual-core processor.

A 4G iPad could make a big difference in performance. Add the A6 quad-core processor and the device turns into a speedboat.

"Both AT&T's and Verizon's LTE networks have shown that they are capable of some very high data speeds -- speeds of 20 Mbps to 40 Mbps are not that unusual," Allen Nogee, principal analyst for wireless technology at In-Stat, told MacNewsWorld. "These speeds are more than adequate for an iPad, a device that runs quite well on a 2- 4 Mbps WiFi home network. An iPad will run fine on LTE."

Another reason 4G would make sense for the iPad 3 is the compatibility it offers for those using the iCloud. At 3G speeds, the iCloud is stormy weather.

Rumors of an 8-inch iPad are nothing new. A smaller form factor would help Apple counter Amazon's popular Kindle Fire, and that may be the biggest reason it's likely to turn up now.

There may also be economic reasons to support an 8-inch iPad. "A smaller form-factor would be less expensive," Nogee pointed out, "and easier for wireless operators to subsidize."