iPad
A Walmart employee (L) explains Apple iPad options to a customer at a Walmart Supercenter in Rogers, Arkansas June 6, 2013. REUTERS/Rick Wilking

Apple's release date schedule for the iPad Air 2 and the iPad Mini 3 this 2014 will push through as planned as company big boss Tim Cook declared that he is highly optimistic of the prospects offered by the global tablet market.

Reporting on the tech giant's June 2014 quarter earnings, Cook was quoted by Apple Insider as saying that he is "very bullish about the future of the tablet market."

It makes sense, therefore, to expect this year's double iPad refreshes to deliver the tablet killer features that Apple fans missed out last year.

IGZO display technology on iPad Air 2?

Apart from sporting a Retina panel, the next regular iPad is touted for the longest time to finally boast of the screen technology called Indium Gallium Zinc Oxide or IGZO, which at present is exclusive to Sharp Display of Japan.

IGZO is much desired for mobile devices owing to the technology's overall superior features compared to the average LCD panel. The screen is said to be optimised for device touch functions but its top attraction really is its extra-ordinary power efficiency, which translates to longer operating hours.

However, IGZO may not yet be around in time for the second iPad Air debut (the sixth iPad generation actually) this year, according to a report by G4Games, pointing to the Korean online news site as source.

Sharp remains on course to deliver a perfectly-working IGZO display panel but the panel would likely be for the iPad Air 3 that will come out in 2015. Sharp, G4Games said, is yet to configure its manufacturing plants in Japan for a large-scale IGZO production in the immediate months ahead.

Compact iPad will become iPad Mini Air and is 30 per cent leaner

Now from Taiwan, a new report by The Economic Daily News and picked up by MacRumors, is claiming that Apple has redesigned the iPad Mini for its third installment and the iOS slate will shed some 30 per cent of its thickness.

But the trimmed down Mini Air seems unlikely as according to MacRumors the move will leave the device with a 5.25mm thin body finish, coming from the 7.5mm iPad Mini 2. In the same Taiwanese report, hints were floated too Retina will remain and the main engine will be the 64-bit A8 CPU, which are two components that are power-hungry.

It defies logic then how Apple will squeeze a powerful but very slim battery into the third iPad Mini just so to accommodate its transformation into the iPad Mini Air, MacRumors added.

These speculated features, however, will either get confirmed or prove as another miss on the twin iPad Air 2 and iPad Mini 3 release dates that analysts said will happen between October and November 2014.