I'm going to go against MacDawg (woof!) and state I think it's at least a possibility.
Yes, I know all about Apple's history with refresh cycles, so let's not go there.
But, as we've all been warned before, "Past performance does not mean future results."
If SJ sees a way to dominating this new part of the computing industry, he'll do it. If it means breaking convention on refresh cycles, so be it.
We've already gotten the leak that the iPad2 is in production. I'll give this leak credence due to the source (WSJ). Now, for sure I don't know how many weeks they need to get ready for a launch, but my gut feel is that they won't need until April to build up launch stock.
Does it perhaps mean a March 1 launch? And, if that's the case, could we then figure on an iPad 3 launch in the holiday season?
This is interesting, and I won't glibly dismiss the possibility with the wave of my hand.
Now, if we don't hear anything until April, then I'd go back to thinking that we're on the once-a-year update track. But Gruber's also a good leak source so I won't discount that easily either.
We'll see, and I consider this all fun speculation. If I'm wrong, no big deal - unlike some other posters who repeatedly and violently stated that there would never, ever, ever be an iPhone on Verizon...