Apple iPad Mini 2 With Retina Display Could Go Into Mass Production Next Month; LG Display To Be The Major Supplier: Report

On the heels of a report suggesting the Apple iPad Mini 2 with Retina display will be released in the third quarter, NPD DisplaySearch analyst Richard Shim came up with another piece of information on Monday claiming that the mass production of the device could begin soon.

Shim told CNET that display suppliers like LG Display are expected to start producing the iPad Mini 2’s screen, “boasting one of the highest tablet resolutions to date” in the coming months. He also said that LG would be the major manufacturer of the Retina display and that Samsung would likely be out of the picture.

"We should see the start of mass production of the panels in June or July," Shim said. "Samsung is currently not in the iPad Mini, and they won't be in the next-generation. LGD [LG Display] is becoming a much bigger supplier than before.”

Although other manufacturers would also supply display panels for the iPad Mini 2, LG Display is most likely the most prominent initial supplier, Shim said.

The analyst also provided some details about the device’s specifications. He claims the iPad Mini 2 with Retina display will feature a 7.9-inch screen with a resolution of 2048 x 1536 pixels, which is double that of the existing iPad Mini resolution. It will also give roughly the same pixels per inch (PPI) as the Retina screen found on the iPhone 5, “one of the highest densities for a tablet to date,” CNET reported.

Shim said that displays in upcoming tablets would exceed 300 PPI, but he wondered if consumers would be able to notice those extra pixels.

"We're going to start to see a bunch of tablets [coming out] with a pixel density over 300. At a certain point it will be hard to discern that improved image quality," he said.

While both the 7-inch and 8.9-inch models of the Amazon Kindle Fire will be updated with displays featuring more than 300 PPI, Google’s Nexus 10 is already getting closer to that feat with 299 PPI, Shim said.

The analyst claimed in an earlier report that Apple would launch two Retina display iPad Mini models -- one in the second half of this year and the other in the first quarter of 2014.