It doesn't matter what the iPad 3 has. It will sell millions.

Those of us in the tech community can be pretty funny at times, buzzing with speculation about what the next big thing will have under the hood. We get all atwitter at the thought of super components in a new gadget, and how that will give all our lives meaning.

Case in point the iPad 3 or whatever Apple will call the next iPad coming up. You can't turn a corner on the Internet without bumping into one speculation or another about what we might find inside the next iPad. Truth is, for the millions who will end up buying the iPad 3, it doesn't matter what it has inside. It's what it can do that will drive sales just as it always does.

It might have a "retina display", "quad-core processor", or a "super hi-res camera". Those things are nice and geeky and we like to think about them. It might only have minor differences from the iPad 2, such as more memory or longer battery life. None of that will drives sales as we like to think, it never does with Apple products.

What will get millions of consumers opening their wallets for the next iPad? Quite simply, what you can do with it, as the marketing program Apple will launch with the iPad 3 will detail for us. You can make music with the iPad. You can listen to music, even buy music with the iPad. You can watch movies of all sorts. You can dream of things and do them with the iPad.

See also: Top Android tablet apps -- early 2012 edition

You can buy and read books anywhere with the iPad. Even better you can interact with books on the iPad. You can learn things in new ways with the iPad. Whatever makes you feel you are using your spare time better, you can do with the iPad.

In other words, what will sell millions of new iPads is the same thing that sold all of the iPad and iPad 2 -- apps. Apps to make all of the aforementioned things happen. Apps to make common things happen in new and innovative ways. As the ads have told us for years, there's an app for that. And they will sell millions of iPad 3 tablets. No matter what's under the hood.

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