iPad Mini Retina to miss Holiday Season

If you were counting on having a new second gen iPad Mini with a retina display this Christmas, you might want to put that thought on hold for a while. Although Apple has traditionally launched new products roughly on a 12 month cycle, rumors indicate that due to technical problems, the new iPad mini "retina" will only arrive next year, missing the much desired holiday season.

Considering the main issue with the original iPad mini was its - now "obsolete" resolution - a retina iPad mini would certainly be a very welcome new addition to Apple's catalog.

However, Apple might have something else up its sleeve: a new non-retina iPad mini, even thinner that the previous model, that will be sold alongside the new one when it arrives a few months later. If that's really the case, it will be very interesting to see how Apple plans on placing both models (price-wise). Traditionally, a new iPad mini retina would be expected to keep the price at the same (or similar) level than the previous version. But if we consider Apple will have both a new iPad mini non-retina and a retina version at the same side... does that mean that the retina version will be more expensive or, that the non-retina iPad mini will be cheaper. A cheaper iPad mini certainly would make sense considering the budget Android tablets that pop up every week. But with Google having big plans for the upcoming Nexus 7 2.0 - with higher resolution displays at around $199 - Apple certainly won't have an easy time competing with that.