A 7-inch iPad is an idea that has been floated on the rumor mill and by analysts before, but the prediction was made once more Thursday by Ezra Gottheil of Technology Business Research .

The analyst told Computerworld that he expects Apple Inc. won't introduce a Kindle Fire-sized iPad at the March event when it is expected to introduce the iPad 3. But Gottheil says it could come later this year.

"I believe that's always been in the plan," Gottheil told Computerworld. "Actually that's a good form factor for some users, and although they will also charge a premium above other similar-sized tablets, they want to protect that price flank."

Amazon.com Inc. is the only company to successfully produce a 7-inch tablet device, the Kindle Fire, and Apple co-founder Steve Jobs was pretty adamant that the approximately 10-inch size for the iPad is the ideal.

Even before the Fire's release, industry observers speculated that, with a price roughly half that of Apple's popular tablet, it could be an iPad killer. At one point during the holiday shopping season, Kindles reportedly were selling at a pace of about 1 million a week.

Other predictions Gottheil made about the iPad are that it will include the Siri voice-activated personal assistant that Apple introduced on the iPhone 4S and a higher resolution screen.

He said a quad-core processor is possible but unlikely, with Apple probably going for a faster dual core chip.

Reports this week said that Apple plans to roll out the iPad 3 in the first week of March at an event in San Francisco, but there have been no official invitations sent out yet.