Imminent Apple announcement for iPad HD, which isn't iPad 3 - report

Apple's imminent iPad event will be the time and place for an iPad HD reveal, not an iPad 3 reveal, VentureBeat has been informed.

In other words, the new iPad will be the iPhone 4S of Apple's tablet plans - an incremental upgrade.

VentureBeat heard the word from "a reliable source" who has apparently been accurate with Apple rumours in the past.

VentureBeat's report followed other iPad HD stories written by Gizmodo and The Verge.

The iPad HD gets its name from the heavily rumoured 2048x1536 pixel screen. Current iPads push out 1024x768 images. Digital Foundry investigated, in theory, how it was possible for Apple to reach such screen resolutions.

That Apple's new tablet will be called iPad HD and feature that screen is apparently the talk of the Game Developers Conference this week. Even EA's casual game giant PopCap suggested it was on its way.

"I think that tomorrow every game developer will have to scramble to get a new higher res version of their Apple games on the store," PopCap's franchise manager Giordano Bruno Constaible said on stage, reported by Gamesindustry International.

That iPad HD won't be iPad 3 also tallies with a report from January, which heard that slight-upgrade iPad 3 (now evidently iPad HD) would launch in March and significant upgrade iPad 4 (presumably iPad 3) in October.

VentureBeat also heard that Apple was buying smaller 7.1-inch screen components for a smaller iPad release later this year. This would put iPad more directly up against Amazon's popular Kindle device.

The Apple event takes place this afternoon/evening from 6pm GMT.