Retina iPad Mini 2 Release Date Likely In October; iPad 5 May Arrive In Fall As LG To Ship Display Panels In Q3

Apple’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) display screen supplier, LG (NYSE:LPL), will ship millions of iPad panels in the third quarter of this year for the iPad 5 and the Retina iPad mini 2, indicating that both products could be released in the fourth quarter, a new report said.

Industry sources reveal that LG Display is preparing to ship 2.5 million to 3 million 9.7-inch panels for the full-sized iPad and 2 million to 3 million 7.9-inch Retina panels for the iPad mini 2 every month in the third quarter of 2013, Taiwan-based DigiTimes reported on Thursday.

The report said that LG is “making new headway in producing Retina panel technology for use in the next-generation iPad mini,” which is now expected to be released in October. The report contradicts recent rumors and analysts’ comments, which suggested that the release of the iPad mini 2 with Retina Display would be delayed, possibly until 2014.

In fact, DigiTimes itself reported last week that Apple could delay the second generation iPad mini as the company had not yet decided if it wanted to adopt a Retina display for the device.

A recent report from Economic Daily News, a Taiwanese news website, also said that the 7.9-inch Retina iPad mini 2 may not arrive until the first quarter of 2014 because of a shortage of Retina Display panels. Other reports had suggested that a non-Retina version of the iPad mini could be released this year, and that the one featuring Retina Display could appear next year.

Regardless of contradicting reports, one thing is quite clear that at some point in the future, Apple will unveil a Retina iPad mini, which is likely to sport an "almost bezel-free" design, an upgraded processor, and a lighter and thinner form factor.

Coming back to the iPad 5, Thursday’s DigiTimes report said that around 1 million to 2 million units of all display panels bound for the bigger iPad will be earmarked for the fifth generation iPad, while the rest will be used on previous iPad models.

Also, the new iPad 5 will come with a resolution of 2048x1536 pixels and will feature only one light tube in its backlight instead of two.