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First Retina iPad Mini is on track, DisplaySearch reports

A refresh of the iPad Mini is coming in the third quarter, NPD DisplaySearch said late Sunday in an update.

Brooke Crothers Former CNET contributor
Brooke Crothers writes about mobile computer systems, including laptops, tablets, smartphones: how they define the computing experience and the hardware that makes them tick. He has served as an editor at large at CNET News and a contributing reporter to The New York Times' Bits and Technology sections. His interest in things small began when living in Tokyo in a very small apartment for a very long time.
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Getting enough light through the pixels while keeping the display apparatus thin enough is apparently a challenge for the iPad Mini.
Getting enough light through the pixels while keeping the display apparatus thin enough is apparently a challenge for the iPad Mini. Apple

Update at 11:15 p.m. PT: The iPad Mini will get a refresh in the third calendar quarter with a Retina display, NPD DisplaySearch predicted late Sunday.

This is an update to information that DisplaySearch provided earlier Sunday.

"We see two refreshes coming. One [with a Retina display] in the second half of this year, then one in Q1 [first quarter] of 2014," analyst Richard Shim told CNET late Sunday night.

"The Q1 [2014] device will have a Retina display plus an updated processor," Shim added.

Earlier Sunday night, NPD stated that the first iPad Mini with a Retina display would appear in the first quarter of 2014. That will actually be the second refresh, according to NPD's updated prediction.

It's not clear yet which display technology will be used. One of the candidates is LTPS, or low-temperature polysilicon -- the same technology used in the iPhone 5.