Samsung Readies Tablet Display To Combat iPad 3

Apple and Samsung are both reportedly readying retina-display tablets for release in the New Year as they seek to refresh their portfolio.

Speculation suggests that the iPad 3 will be released in February while Samsung will unveil a new tablet at Mobile World Congress at the same time.

Displays of strength

According to Citigroup analyst Richard Gardner, several sources have said that the iPad 3 will be similar to the iPad 2, but will boast the retina-display of Apple’s iPhone 4 and 4S smartphones, which would double the iPad’s screen resolution.

Gardner said that “there do not appear to be any significant technical hurdles remaining” to prevent the launch of a retina-display iPad, which was apparently one of the reasons that the iPad 2 did not feature such a display.

Any display with a pixels per inch (PPI) density of over 300, is said to be indistinguishable to the human eye and such displays can be classified as “retina-displays”.R reports The iPhone 4 and 4S currently have resolutions of 960 x 640 and a PPI of 300, while the iPad and iPad 2 have a PPI of just 126.

However, BGR reports that Samsung is more than ready to match whatever Apple has planned, with a new 11.6 inch tablet running Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich set to be launched.

Sources have said that the tablet’s display is slightly larger than the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, but will have a thinner design and a 11.6 inch screen capable of a 2560 x 1600 resolution. Other features include a dual core 2GHz Exynos 5250 CPU as well as a host of media synching options.

Tablet Wars

Manufacturer Sharp is supposedly supplying screens for the iPad 3, in addition to a number of other Apple products, as Apple seeks to diversify its suppliers as it contests a number of legal battles with Samsung, which supplies a number of components for Apple’s devices.

The iPad 2 currently dominates the market, but its share is expected to fall as rival manufacturers further establish themselves in the tablet arena. The Amazon Kindle Fire has been viewed as a potential threat, with the device on course to sell four million units before Christmas.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 was launched earlier this year to critical acclaim and was viewed as a strong iPad competitor, but Apple was not so impressed and claimed the tablet was too close a copy of its own tablet.

Apple subsequently launched a number of legal battles across the world and was granted a permanent ban on the sale of the Galaxy Tab in Germany, while it was able to secure a temporary ban in Australia. However, the Australian ban has since been lifted, while its bid for a ban in the US has been rejected.