iPad 3 feature tease: iOS 5, 4G, 3 capacities, 2 release dates and a…

The iPad 3 sits at the machine of mystery even as details of Apple’s other pending iProducts trickle in. Here’s an examination of what we do know about the iPad 3, or at least what the parameters are for the third generation tablet computer. From an operating system ending with a five, to a network perhaps starting with a four, to the future of the current three-tiered capacity grid, to release dates which span two different years, here’s a countdown to the one tablet you’ve been waiting for.

iPad 3 with iOS 5: This one’s just about certain. Apple has already unveiled iOS 5 and declared that it’ll be a fall release. The next-gen operating system will revolutionize the way iPad users interface with their device, if the iOS 5 demo turns out to work as advertised.

4G iPad 3: For those who use their iPad on the go, the built in 3G is everything. But 4G LTE would make for significantly faster mobile internet and network usage, making the iPad 3 a more powerful device – at least in those relatively scant places where 4G LTE signals exist. By the time the iPad 3 ships, however, carriers may have built their 4G networks out such that Apple sees fit to build it into the hardware.

iPad 3 models: With the higher capacity models of the first two iPads not holding their value over the long run nearly as well as the lowly sixteen gigabyte model, will Apple be able to justify continuing to charge an extra hundred or two dollars for merely more storage space on the mid and high end iPad 3 models? Apple may need to come up with additional differentiations, or perhaps cut down to just two iPad 3 models.

iPad 3 release date times two: From fall 2011 to spring 2012, nothing would be shocking. The issue at hand is whether Apple is content to stick with its traditional annual iPad rollout and wait til March of next year, or whether it wants to get the jump on the iPad 3 as quickly as possible and take advantage of launching it alongside iOS 5 this fall. There’s also the issue of whether the iPad 3 would be finished and ready to ship by the fall anyway.

And a partridge in a… So much isn’t known about the iPad 3 that there are bound to be plenty more categories of unknowns added before it’s all said and done. Here’s more on the iPad 3.