The iPad mini went on sale in November 2012, and as is the way with Apple there are plenty rumours to be found regarding the next iteration of the device.

Apple, as is its custom, will never be drawn on speculation about upcoming devices - but that hasn't stopped the whisperings circulating around the internet.

This is an article about the iPad Mini 2 - we also have news on the full sized iPad 5, and the rumoured iPhone 5S and iPhone 6 smartphones.

Apple iPad Mini 2 - Screen

Probably the biggest gripe with Apple’s first entrant in the small screened tablet market was the resolution of its screen. With just a 1024 x 768 pixel resolution and 163 pixels per inch, it was the same tech we first saw on the iPad 2 and those dastardly pixels were easy to spot.

Compare that resolution to its two main competitors, Google’s Nexus 7 and Amazon’s Kindle Fire HD which both sit at 1280 x 800, you can see it was outdated before it was even released.

Website Patently Apple, which describes itself as ‘celebrating Apple’s spirit of invention’ reported early February that Au Optronics is making a screen for the iPad mini 2 with a display pixel count of 324 pixels per inch.

Looking even further ahead, it claims sources say Apple has asked LG to make a premium class iPad Mini display for the iPad mini 3 – which would push pixel density to over 400 pixels per inch.

Apple iPad Mini 2 - release date

Apple had pretty much stuck with a yearly release cycle of its iOS devices until it dropped the fourth generation of the iPad barely 6 months after the third. So is Apple’s release schedule all up in the air? Some sources seem to think not, with many believing the iPad mini 2 will in fact live on until its first birthday without being replaced.

Apple is now on a bi-annual update schedule for its iPad range, according to one industry analyst, which could mean new 9.7-inch and 7.9-inch models as soon as March.

After consulting his sources at this week's CES expo in Las Vegas, Brian White of Topeka Capital Markets is convinced that a new fifth-generation iPad and a second-generation iPad Mini are on the agenda in the next couple of months - according to AppleInsider.

White told investors that the iPad 5 would be even thinner and lighter than the third and fourth generation models, while a processing bump to the A6X processor was also mooted.

The new iPad mini would keep the same form factor, according to White, while there would be a bump in the engine room. White's note made no mention of recent rumours that the next iPad mini would boast the same high-resoution Retina Display as the iPhone and iPad.

Apple iPad Mini 2 - specs

It wasn’t just the screen resolution that Apple recycled from the iPad 2, the processor was the same too. When the iPad Mini comes to the end of its cycle this processor will have been around for 2 and half years, a long time in the world of computers. So, expect this to get a big bump up, possibly to the A6X chip that runs the iPad 4 so smoothly.