Is Facebook’s “awesome” launch next week their iPad app?

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According to Reuters, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg told reporters, yesterday, that Facebook is planning to “launch something awesome” next week. The product developed in Facebook’s Seattle-based engineering center can obviously be anything from a new site feature or a new mobile application, but with multiple iOS-related products coming very soon, we’re thinking this awesome launch might be their long-awaited iPad application.

Facebook has reportedly been readying a native iPad application for sometime now and according to a report from two weeks ago, the application is essentially complete and is undergoing final testing. This application is said to bring some unique features to the 9.7 inch tablet – and have an interface that goes way beyond what is currently available to Facebook.com and Facebook for iPhone users.

People who have seen the application said it has a slick design that has been tailored for the iPad and its touchscreen interface. Facebook developers and designers have also overhauled the Facebook Chat and Facebook Groups features for the application. And the app will go beyond the features available on the Facebook Web site by allowing users to shoot and upload photos and videos directly from the iPad’s built-in cameras.

Also on the table is Facebook’s “Project Spartan.” The project, originally detailed by TechCrunch, is essentially a web-based application store platform – focused on the iPad.

It’s entirely HTML5-based and the aim is to reach some 100 million users in a key place: mobile. More specifically, the initial target is both surprising and awesome: mobile Safari. Yes, Facebook is about to launch a mobile platform aimed squarely at working on the iPhone (and iPad). But it won’t be distributed through the App Store as a native application, it will be entirely HTML5-based and work in Safari.

A third upcoming iOS product from Facebook is an Instagram-like, photo-sharing application. Tech Crunch describes:

Either way, based on the images in front of us, the best way to think about it appears to be Path meets Instagram meets Color meets (Path’s new side project) With — with a few cool twists.  And obviously, it’s built entirely on top of Facebook’s massive social graph.

With three iOS products on the table for an imminent launch, and with an iPad application that has been said to be launching in the coming weeks, we think it makes sense that at least one of these three initiatives is in store for Facebook’s “awesome” product launch next week.