One of Apple's key display suppliers is already gearing up to provide Retina screen panels for the iPad mini 2, according to Chinese sources.
iPad mini 2 rumours already? I'm afraid so - and they're not likely to let up, particularly when there's one obvious amendment that a lot of fans would like to see Apple make to the iPad mini tablet launched so recently: add a Retina display.
For various reasons - among them cost and the ability to use iPad 2-optimised apps - Apple chose not to give the iPad mini a Retina display (the term it uses for a display with such high pixel density that when held at a normal distance the eye cannot tell it's looking at a screen).
The iPad mini was the first non-Retina iOS device from Apple since the iPad 2 in March last year, and a lot of people were disappointed, even though going non-Retina made sense in a lot of ways.
Apple's iPhone 5, iPad mini and iPad 4. Only the middle one has a non-Retina display. Boo! etc
So now the most obvious upgrade from iPad mini to iPad mini 2 (is that what we're going to call it? We had an aggressive reader write in once to insist that the plural of MacBook Pro should be 'MacBooks Pro', and on that theme perhaps we could consider 'iPad 2 mini') is to add a whole lot more pixels. And AU Optronics, one of the firms supplying 1024x768 (non-Retina) screen panels for the iPad mini 1, is reportedly already gearing up to supply 2048x1536 panels in the same dimensions for the follow-up launch.
Intriguingly, MENAFN adds that one further obstacle to Retina iPad minis the first time around was a technical one, and that AU Optronics has overcome this by adopting IGZO (indium gallium zinc oxide) technology to prolong battery life.
(Via Slashgear, quoting the Chinese site DoNews)
See also:
iPad mini 2 release date, rumours and leaked images
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