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When the iPad 3 released Apple called it "The new iPad" everywhere.

So you had:

- iPad ("iPad")

- iPad 2 ("iPad 2" or "iPad 2nd generation")

- iPad 3 ("The new iPad")

- iPad 4 ("iPad with Retina display")

So in late 2012 you had people shopping, and having to pick between "The New iPad" (last year's model), "iPad with Retina display" (this year's model), and the iPad Air.

Apple stopped after that, going with iPad [type] [number] naming.

IIRC it was literally called “the new iPad” which is nonsensical a decade later.

I always try to just skip to the (year) identification scheme, which is potentially less confusing (unless I'm actually looking at my specific piece of hardware), unless they release multiple iterations each year, which it seems they've done a couple times.

yup, you remember it right. It looked like they wanted to have an iPhone-like numbering scheme with iPad 2 and then.. changed their minds I guess?