Apple Inc. (AAPL): Why The iPad Mini Is Delayed

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has been saying for a while now that it would never do a bigger screen for its smartphones or other devices simply for the sake of making larger displays according to consumer demand. Tim Cook has been quoted that the company has interest in only doing bigger displays if it can pull them off without compromising the quality of the “experience” with the display for the user. But with much speculation and rumor floating about the need for Apple to develop something new in its iPhone 6 – besides the iOS 7 operating system, which we chronicled here – thanks to the rapidly growing innovation landscape in smartphones, Apple has been working to develop something new in other apsects of its business.

One of the big innovations talked about was the display size for Retina. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) developed the Retina display technology for its notebooks and other larger devices, and is only recently starting to move it onto portable devices like the iPad. But if Apple isn’t willing to go larger with displays  without compromising quality of colors, brightness and other factors, does the same principle apply if the screens were to get smaller?

There seems to have been a strongly held contention that the Retina technology would eventually get to smaller devices, and there was some serious discussion about Retina coming to the next-generation iPad Mini when it is released sometime later this year. However, there are new reports surfacing out of Asia that suggest a shortage of the display technology is causing a delay in the Retina iPad Mini until early 2014. But there seem to be some conflicting reports.

On the one hand, talk is that Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) will release the iPad Mini as scheduled in the fourth quarter of 2013 without the Retina display and introduce a Retina update in early 2014, but that was countered by a report that the iPad Mini launch in general would be pushed back into 2014 because of the Retina displays.

Does this story in some vague way sound familiar? Yeah, we thought so, too.

This isn’t the first time we have heard about iPad Mini Retina displays being an issue. We mentioned in an earlier story (read it here) that initially, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) was having trouble compacting all of the pixels needed for a Retina display into a smaller iPad display size.

This time around, though, the report is simply based on a shortage of the displays themselves. What do you think? Should Apple submit an iPad Mini as planned this fall without Retina and update it later, or should it wait, get things right throughout the process and release a single iPad Mini model in early 2014 when it is ready? Where to you see investors like fund manager David Einhorn (see his full equity portfolio) landing on this topic? Give us your feedback in the comments section below.

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