It is highly likely that no holiday release date, more so a Black Friday 2013 arrival, can be expected from Apple's iPad Mini 2 and consumers can blame its Retina-laced display panel, new reports said.

Sharp Display, according to Apple Insider, has run into serious issues in volume producing the high-resolution screen component.

"Supposedly at fault are malfunctions relating to Sharp's thin-film transistor, or TFT, implementation, which is causing burn-in on an unknown percentage of produced displays," said the report. Apple Insider points to South Korean online ETNews as the source of its information.

The burn-in, apparently, is hardly noticeable to the average consumers but it appears Apple has rejected the manufactured panels so far, which utilise the energy-efficient IGZO technology exclusive to Sharp.

With the setback, the likelihood of a Mini 2 supply shortage in the last quarter of 2103 has become more imminent. Apple itself has admitted that shipments for the small iOS 7 tablet may not be sufficient.

Sharp handles some 40 per cent of the display panel requirements for the iPad Mini 2 production, according to reports, highlighting the supply imbalance to ensue in the event the Japanese manufacturer failed to resolve its production woes in time.

So, will the Mini 2 completely skip out both the Black Friday and Christmas festivities this year?

As of writing, Apple seems moving heaven and earth to prevent such dreadful scenario from materialising and the solution could be coming from South Korea - from Samsung actually.

From IGZO, Apple will likely shift to the low temperature polycrystalline silicon (LTPS) technology that Samsung has already perfected. In adopting this Samsung-way of Retina rendition for the iPad Mini 2, Apple is more assured that its bestselling slate will be free of LCD burn-in problems, Apple Insider said.

However, it is suggested too that Samsung will only enter the Mini 2 production efforts by January 2014, which obviously implies that stocks of the device will not reach the levels that Apple has envisioned.

There would be units to circulate, according to analysts, but the most would be three million, tops - surely not enough to meet the expected rush to grab the Mini 2, starting on Black Friday and continuing into the Christmas season.

Many fear the waiting time could stretch right after the 2013 holidays and Apple seems powerless at the moment to avert the looming iPad Mini 2 stock outs.

And the anxiety is with solid bases. The Mini 2 now boasts most of the rumoured upgrades that were attributed to it - headlined by faster A-series CPU, higher RAM provision and what should prove as the device's biggest selling point, a Retina-flavoured 7.9-inch screen.

It is a given that the new tablet is a consumer magnet.

Immediately after its release date, analysts expect the Retina iPad Mini 2 to outsell the first Mini, which quickly sold over 20 million units by end of December 2012. But the big question is: Will there be enough Mini 2s sitting on store shelves come December this year.