It will be a double iPad launch in the final quarter of 2013, new reports said, stressing that Apple is rolling out the fifth-generation iPad and the iPad Mini 2, likely boasting of the high resolution Retina display panel.

Bloomberg, according to MacRumors, has reported that the tech giant will issue refreshed versions of its tablet lines anytime within the last three months of the year. The claim contradicts earlier assertions by analysts that it is only the iPad 5 that will come out in Q4 2013.

The Mini 2 will have to wait until March or April of 2014, KGI Securities' Ming-chi Kuo said in an earlier note.

Now, pointing to anonymous sources, Bloomberg said that Apple "plans to introduce a new iPad Mini, the first with a high-resolution screen."

The two iPads, the report insists, "are set to be introduced in the last three months of the year."

The report somehow fits with the latest Apple assessment issued by investment firm Needham & Co., hinting that the tech titan will not release a cheaper version of the iPad Mini to arrest the dwindling profit margins of its iPad business.

For the first six months of 2013, the value of Apple's iPad business model slid by more than 37 per cent, Needham & Co.'s Charlie Wolf told Apple Insider. Mr Wolf noted that that retreat is mostly identified with the introduction of the Mini in the last quarter of 2012.

The smaller tablet proved a blockbuster for Apple still took a soft hit due to its relatively lower price. Overall, the company faces an "increasingly hostile competition," at every front as it feels the pressure from the Mac to the iPhone line up, Mr Wolf said.

His projection matches that of Mr Kuo's earlier reading that its makes no business sense for Apple to release an iPad Mini that is geared for the price-conscious tablet shoppers, at least no in the current year.

The KGI analyst is convinced that if indeed a budget iPad Mini is in the works, it will not come out until the latter part of Q1 2014. The target release date for any Mini versions is between March and April of the same year, Mr Kuo added.

The iPad Mini 2, according to earlier reports, will touchdown between October and November or a few weeks after the iPad 5 launch, the gap intended for the bigger iOS 7 tablet to gather sufficient steam before competing with its 7.9-inch sibling.