I will provide a thread which explains why shortly . If you look at Apple's history of naming you will understand why they called the ipad new ipad yes it is confusing because the media has talked about ipad 3 for months. Our forum has decided to make it easier for users to find and post threads by having each model separated by a number. In saying that we will up date the description so it states 3rd generation iPad. This is similar to the iPod touch 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th