CNET is reporting that they have received information that the new iPad to be announced in San Francisco March 7 at 10am (that's March 8, 2am in Perth, Australia) will actually be called the iPad HD and not the iPad 3. They report:

"A developer who's previously provided reliable information with respect to things Apple and otherwise tells us the next iPad uses the HD moniker instead of going with "iPad 3."

We're also hearing the same reports from Gizmodo and VentureBeat. This actually makes a lot of sense to me as naming the iPad and iPhone 2,3,4, 4s is a departure for Apple. They have never done it with any of their other product lines. The iPod Nano for example has had dramatic changes in it's styling over the last few years but Apple has never called it the iPod Nano 2 or 3.

They've changed their MacBooks over and over and kept the same name without placing numbers after them. I'd be happy to see Apple return to just branding it's iOS products as iPhone and iPad and just call them different generations to unify their product strategy.