Although Apple has not yet launched iPad Mini in all the markets where it sells iDevices, the partners of the American company would already prepare to produce the tablet iPad Mini 2. An American analyst visited the Asian factories of Apple's partners and it seems that chip manufacturers have already received confirmation to begin preparations for the production of iPad Mini 2 tablet components. It seems that Apple would be interested in launching the new tablet earlier than the traditional year that passes between the launch of such important products, but for now no one knows for sure what period of time will pass until such a launch.
RBC Capital Markets analyst Doug Freedman — who is in China visiting chip companies this week — offered this ambiguous Apple note: "iPad Mini Gen-2: Apple's gen-2 iPad mini is getting pulled-in, and is likely to have several new suppliers , with TXN gaining content.” "Pulled in" would seem to imply that Apple is moving up the introduction of the next iPad Mini. That would be helpful if we knew when the gen 2 Mini was actually slated to ship in the first place. As the current iPad Mini is still in short supply, we may be getting a little ahead of ourselves.
iPad Mini 2 could come with a Retina Display and improved hardware, users of the current model complaining that the screen is clearly inferior to the one implemented in iPad 3 and iPad 4, and the performance does not rise to the level of expectations. It would not be unusual for Apple to launch before the "deadline", but it remains to be seen how busy 2013 will be.
