According to the newest reports, Apple’s display suppliers are reportedly going through a ‘certification examination’, adding further fuel to the fire that is the iPad Mini rumor mill. Liberty Times, a Taiwanese news outlet, carried a report yesterday claiming that LG Display and AU Optronics (two companies that supply displays to the Cupertino company) were readying their product lines and display samples for an Apple certification program.
If everything goes smoothly for both the companies, they could expect to split the production of up to 6 million displays for iPad Mini screens for its launch at the end of 2012. In the meanwhile, two other companies (namely TPK Holding and Chimei Innolux) are apparently providing the backlight modules for the rumored tablet’s screens.
There seems to be a consensus among most news outlets that the new, thinner and smaller version of the bestselling iPad will feature a 7.85 inch screen. A Retina Display would seem to be doubtful at this point, considering that the price range Apple is said to be targeting falls within the $200 to $250 band. Given that the iPod Touch has just a 3.5 inch Retina display and yet is priced at $200, the iPad Mini will probably be closer to the iPad 2 than the new third generation iPad.
What is for certain though is that Apple will get to take aim at what must be a rather pesky market sector for them – the $200 tablet market that is overwhelmingly dominated by Amazon’s Kindle Fire. Given that an Apple device, however stripped down, will still allow exclusive access to Apple’s incredible content ecosystem, the iPad Mini may have a massive market to break into.
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