Earlier this week Steve Jobs unveiled the iPad 2 to an enthusiastic audience in San Francisco. As part of his speech, Jobs suggested that 2010 was “the year of the iPad”, and predicted that 2011 will be “the year of iPad 2”.

This had led many speculators to wonder as to whether Jobs is going to suggest that 2012 is going to be “the year of iPad 3”.

“2012 is going to be far from remembered as the year of iPad 3, or in fact, any other technology. No matter how magical it is” says Dr Dean Portland from the Modern Mayan Society.

“As most people are aware these days, the world will end in 2012. The Mesoamerican Long Count calendar clearly states that a cataclysm will take place on December 21, 2012. Depending on when the iPad 3 is released, it won’t have a full year to enjoy.”

Others have criticized the views of Dr Portland, suggesting that there is no need to wait until the end of the year to predict which technology is going to be the theme of that year.

“It’s only March, and Steve Jobs has named 2011 as the year of the iPad 2. By March next year, Jobs, or whoever is at the helm of Apple in 2012, is well within their rights to name the year after any Apple product they see fit” commented Geoff Hedley, Chief Editor of The Unofficial Apple Fan Legion web blog.

In his presentation, Steve Jobs stated around 15 million iPads have been sold in the device’s first nine months on the market.

iPad 2 goes on sale worldwide during the month of March.