Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) used to be known as a niche vendor of beautiful and innovative luxury devices. The $500 billion company that Steve Jobs founded from his garage had the ability to charge more than its competitors: the $600 contract-free iPhone, a $499 10-inch tablet that's not as powerful as the less expensive laptops, and the $1,000 to $3,000 Macs.

While the 50% margin hardware sales has allowed it to take the thickest slice of the industry's profits, Apple didn't -- until -- recently take the thickest slice of the market. But Apple has gone to mainstream. Apple products are now available to average consumers in most countries. More than 200 million people bought Macs, iPods, iPads or iPhones in the past year. Apple had more than 70% of the tablet market in 2011, was the top smartphone vendor in the fourth quarter, and has continued to post growth in the PC market as traditional PC sellers like Hewlett-Packard have continued to struggle.

Five years after the first iPhone was released and two years after the iPad, downloads from Apple's iOS store have reached 25 billion. U.S. President Obama, who extensively used the BlackBerry in the 2008 presidential campaign, has an iPad in his desk in the Oval office, and has an NBA League Pass on the tablet to catch up on the Chicago Bulls and New York Knicks' Jeremy Lin. The U.S. Air Force has ordered 18,000 iPad 2s for the military. Even some taxi cabs in New York are replacing their TVs with iPads. The iPad is making existing in-flight entertainment systems at British Airways and other airlines. The iPad is replacing textbooks in certain schools. Apple, who is embroiled in a trademark dispute with Proview Technology Shenzhen, is making a strong push in China and emerging markets in order to maintain the iPad's double digit growth.

The iPad used to be a novelty, but now every Tom, Jill and Nancy has them. Although there has been frenzy and even a riot outside Apple stores in China, the queues for new devices generated by Jobs' aesthetic vision are getting shorter in parts of Europe and the U.S.

The iPad's arrival signaled a new era for personal computing. For the past two years, laptops and desktops sale slowed while tablet sales skyrocketed. The iPad, a Piper Jaffray analyst, says is the Mac for the masses.

But Apple Inc. lost market share in the fourth quarter of 2011. Amazon, with its $199 Kindle Fire tablet (less than half the $499 entry level iPad), quickly rose to number two in the market. Samsung Electronics, which like Amazon sells Android tablets, also continued to gain ground against Apple.

Two years ago, the $499 iPad was the next big craze, and it eventually killed the netbook. But the iPad novelty has worn off, although apps have increased the device's utility. But the iPad is facing serious competition from the equally functional $200+ tablets from Lenovo, Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Well find out later this month whether the iPad frenzy has ended.

The iPad 3 will be unveiled March 7 in San Francisco, California. At the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater, Apple CEO Tim Cook and other Apple execs are expected to tout a new iPad that's a 9.7-inch Retina Display with a resolution of 2048 X 1536 pixels; 4G compatibility that would bring high Internet speeds; an 8-megapixel camera that's found in the iPhone 4S; a speedier dual-core chip or, hopefully, a quad-core processor; iOS 5.1 with the Siri virtual assistant.

Will you be lining up for an iPad 3?