Reuters said that Apple’s supply chain is “only now gearing up to make retina displays for the iPad mini”, meaning the company is unlikely to have a new device available ahead of the lucrative Christmas holiday sales period.

The suggested delay is significant, due to the availability of high-resolution displays on competing tablets from vendors including Amazon and Google.

Apparently, part of the supply issue is related to Apple being slow to certify its screen partners, due to its strict power-saving requirements. LG Display, Samsung Electronics and Sharp all bid for the contract.

It was also suggested that Apple will offer a version of the device with just 8GB of memory, in order to reduce its build costs in the face of fierce price competition in the tablet market – but the vendor is still unlikely to offer a device at bargain-basement prices.

It is now unclear if a new version of iPad mini will be released before the end of 2013 at all, or only in limited volumes – the current generation of the tablet was announced in October 2012.