Apple has officially announced a special media event that will be taking place at 10am Pacific Time on March 2. The event will be held at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco. The event invitation doesn't give any specific hints as to what it will be about, but the art design is a major hint that supports the belief that Apple will introduce the next-generation iPad (and possibly the next major version of iOS).

Kara Swisher at All Things D pegged the date for the rumored event on Tuesday this week, saying the next-gen iPad would be introduced on March 2. That's exactly one week away, so we're hardly surprised to see the invitations go out to members of the press today. The invitation (pictured above) reads "Come see what 2011 will be the year of," with the calendar peeling back to reveal an iPad in the corner.

In the last several years, Apple has held media events in March or April in order to preview the next major version of iOS. In 2010, Apple introduced the iPad at an event in late January, but the device wasn't available to the public until early April. The timing of this year's March event has led many to believe that Apple will roll these announcements together into one, but it looks like Apple is trying to be coy this time around with the invitation hints. Ars will be at the event to cover the goings on live, so stay tuned to find out what Apple will drop on us next.