iPad 5, iPad mini 2 due in March, says analyst

iPad mini siri 4

Despite Apple’s absence from this week’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, the company has remained in the headlines. Yesterday, we reported that Apple is evaluating Retina screens for the next iPad mini, with Foxconn’s subsidiary Shenzhen Century Science & Technology allegedly having sent its high-resolution panels based on One Glass Solution to Apple for testing. This indicates that Apple is slowly but surely aligning its supply chain partners ahead of upcoming iPad refreshes. Today, one analyst notes that some evidence now points to the official launch for the iPad 5 and iPad mini 2 in March…

MacRumors passes along a not Topeka Capital Markets analyst Brian White released to clients today, citing “checks” that point to a March launch for both the fifth-generation iPad and the second-generation iPad mini.

Our checks at CES indicate Apple will release the iPad 5 and the second-generation iPad mini this March. The iPad 5 is expected to be lighter and thinner than the iPad 4 that was released in October, while the form factor of the iPad mini should be similar to the first generation iPad mini that debuted in October.

He isn’t saying whether the second-gen iPad mini’s display will be bumped up to Retina, but that’s certainly what other rumors from Apple’s supply chain suggest.

The iPad mini went on sale November 2, 2012 in nearly all of Apple’s markets following the October 23, 2012 introduction. The third-generation iPad was released in March, but was quickly replaced with the iPad 4 six months later.

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