It seems like yesterday we were covering Apple's iPhone 4S event on the MaaSters Center, but so is the case with fast-paced technology. You know--another day, another announcement. As ordinary as tech releases may be, today's will be different. It will be another notable day in history for the world's most admired company . If the March 7th event lives up to the hype of previous product announcements, we're in for a great show. Apple looks to remain at the forefront of the increasingly fragmented tablet market today as it elaborates further on "something [we] really have to see. And touch."

Earlier this month, I broke down a report from Digitimes that claimed Apple would release the newest member of its tablet family in late March or early April 2012. This news came from Apple's premier supplier in China, so it seemed real enough to post about. The source went on to say that Apple would cut down on production of the iPad 2 and begin production of the next iPad in January...

Back in March, Apple was big man on tablet campus. Back then, it would've been crazy to suggest that in a matter of months, a cheaper tablet with less features would be in the limelight. But that's just what is happening. Here we are four days away from the launch of the Kindle Fire, and the tablet has edged the pre-launch demand for the iPad 2 by one percent (5% vs. 4% very likely to buy; based on a ChangeWave survey). Remember that at the time of its launch, the iPad 2 generated enough demand for Apple spokeswoman (Trudy Muller) to describe it as "amazing". Also note that the iPad 2 sold out the Saturday after it was released. The ChangeWave survey also found that more than a quarter of the of the 5% shown in the chart to the right have to delayed their decision to purchase an Apple iPad.

Tablets are the current rage in the enterprise mobility space. Businesses are trying to figure out how to use tablets on offense by deploying them to field-facing personnel and as a platform for new types of mobile applications. The IT team (of course) is trying to figure out how to defend corporate data and networks from these new arrivals.