A Japanese website named Macotakara reports that Foxconn and Pegatron have started assembling the next generation iPad and will be shipping the units in early March of this year. According to the report, 85% of the production is on the shoulders of Foxconn, and 15 % of the iPad 3 units are to be produced by Pegatron. This report collaborates with the previous report of Digitimes which says that Pegatron will be receiving a very small share of the iPad 3 orders.

Sources (based in China) of Makotakara also says that because of the Chinese New Year falling early this year (holiday from 23^rd Jan to 28^th Jan), Apple is aimed at producing the maximum number of iPad 3s possible, and hence has accelerated the entire manufacturing process. The first lot of iPad 3 units produced will feature a LCD panel manufactured by Sharp Electronics Corporation, and will be shipped in early March.

Further, according to the report, some of the iPad accessory manufacturers have already got their hands on detailed design of the Tablet. Shape of the dock connector, position of the camera and location of the back button in iPad 3 will remain unchanged, says Makotakara. Like iPad 2, the next generation iPad will also feature a “front rounding corner”, and iPad 2 smart covers will easily be compatible with it. However, magnet of the cover will be differently positioned for iPad 3.

Article author Danbo says that following the nomenclature of the next iPhone launched in October last year, the next generation iPad will be named iPad 2S and not iPad 3.

Latest reports claim the iPad 3 will come loaded with Retina display, LTE support  , better battery, increased thickness ,  A6 processor and excellent Graphics Processing Unit.