With the slow death of winter underway in the Northern Hemisphere, many lightly turn to thoughts of spring. The return of color, the return of warmth, the lengthening days and the strengthening sunshine all take center stage...not to mention the classical thoughts of love.

But spring for tech enthusiasts means something different: the rise of new Apple (News - Alert) products. From the look of the newest reports, it's about to be a very busy season for Apple indeed.

First, there's word that there may be an update to the iPad mini line, with the iPad mini 2 set for debut potentially as early as April. While iPad 5 casings have already started to leak into the larger field, that may or may not mean an April launch for those as well.

Also, indications about possible Retina displays for the iPad mini line also don't seem likely going into April. The earliest indications suggest a minor spec bump is likely, or some similar technical difference that distinguishes the iPad mini 2 from its predecessor.

Perhaps bigger than this, though, is word about the iPhone (News - Alert) 5S, which is now looking like a very good possibility for an August release. Current word on the iPhone 5S indicates that it will share the same basic design as the iPhone 5, with much the same style of casing, but with some important boosts in terms of hardware and operational capability.

There's set to be an improvement in the processor, as well as a further improvement in the camera over the current iPhone 5's camera.

This all appears to be consistent with Apple's earlier scale of releases, with new iPads to kick off the year—comparatively, anyway—and new iPhones to close out the year just in time for a holiday season release. The scheduling actually seems to be almost in line with last year's releasing, and may well signal that Apple plans to keep to this schedule for some time to come.

There was some issue with that previously, as many wondered if Tim Cook would hold to the scheduling that Steve Jobs (News - Alert) was largely responsible for setting, but it seems that this may be the case.

This doesn't even factor in potential releases around Apple's shot across the wearable technology bow in the iWatch.

Naturally, as is the case with anything related to an iOS hardware release, there's no way of telling just what will hit the final version until Apple itself starts showing off the finalized product. But if the initial projections are correct, we may very well be seeing a couple new Apple events get fired up in earnest for early spring and late summer. It's going to be interesting to see if Apple can keep up the kind of frenzy that was up around earlier releases in the midst of an economy that's still best described as soft.

But one way or another, we're likely to find out soon.