Tthe successor of the popular iPad Mini may cost as much as the full-size iPad because of its new and improved features.

The iPad Mini 2's screen resolution is rumored to have 2,048x1,536, according to a report by DigiTimes. The rumored screen resolution is at least four times the current resolution of the iPad Mini.

Alongside plans to build the iPad Mini 2 with the Retina Display, production cost will see an increase of $12 per unit, which is almost 30 percent of the price of the device. The iPad Mini 2 with Retina Display can carry components costs above $200 per unit.

"According to iSuppli, the price of the 7.9-inch panel is around US$32/unit and the total material cost of entry-level iPad mini is around US$188/unit," wrote Max Wang and Jackie Chang of DigiTimes. "If iPad mini adopts the Retina display, the dots per inch (DPI) will be higher and the brightness of the backlight modules will have to improve. This also means the number of LEDs used will increase, and therefore market observers believe the total cost for iPad mini will increase by more than 30 percent if it is equipped with the 7.9-inch Retina panel."

A new report stirred the rumour mill of the iPad Mini 2 as Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster told clients that the next Apple iPad Mini 2 with Retina display will be launched on mid-2013 after the release of the iPad 5.

Munster said that it is the redesigned iPad 5 that will offer the same iPad Mini-like design style. The full-sized iPad release date may be in April as Munster claims despite growing reports that Apple will not launch any new devices on first half of 2013 because it updated almost all devices last quarter only.

Apple's iPad Mini 2 will obviously offer Retina display to differentiate itself from its predecessor. However, Apple is struggling from supply constraints. The good news is that the Cupertino Giant is preparing to launch the next generation iPad Mini with a screen boasting of a higher resolution than the Retina Display equipped current iPad 4. The retina Display of the next generation iPad Mini will be 324 ppi which is miles ahead of the iPad 4 screens' 264 ppi display.

According to reports, iPad Mini 2 will feature a screen with a resolution of 2048 x 1536. This is almost four times the resolution of the present iPad Mini and is equal to the fourth generation Ipad which was released along with the iPad Mini last year. AU Optronics has been rumored to be making displays for the iPad Mini 2.

The biggest advantage of bringing the resolution of the iPad Mini 2 at par with the iPad 4 will be for the developers who will not have to rack their brains trying to accommodate their iPad apps to another screen size.

Other specs include a more powerful dual core A7 processor and a 7.9 inch screen. It will also feature a 10-hour battery life, a FaceTime HD camera, and an iSight camera with 1080 pixels HD video recording. Apple is also trying to reduce the thickness of the iPad Mini 2 by using the Sharp's IGZO (indium gallium zinc oxide) technology in its screens.