As anticipated, Apple issued invites today for an iPad event next week.

Confirming a report from All Things Digital earlier this week, Apple this morning invited the tech press to an iPad-related event on March 2.

Rumors have swirled for months about a pending iPad 2 announcement (recent stories suggested a delay until June). While Apple has not explicitly confirmed that the iPad 2 will be unveiled at this event, nor when the device would be available, an announcement next week would come roughly a year after the company released the original iPad. Also, Apple is not in the habit of announcing updates to existing products far in advance.