There has been controversy ever since the original rumours of a 'retina' display coming for the iPad 2 were released (double the resolution of the iPad 1). These rumours have been extremely exciting because a high resolution display would make reading text much easier, and make images much more clear. Many users find that after using the high resolution 'retina' display of the iPhone 4, they have a hard time going back to the iPad due to it looking fuzzy and unclear in comparison. The general consensus of amateur analysts has been that Apple WILL release a 'retina' display for the iPad eventually, but that due to costs and manufacturing constraints it will most likely not appear in the iPad 2.
The rumour released today suggests this very thing, with analyst Ming-Chi Kuo of Concord Securities releasing a full list of specs for the upcoming iPad 2. The internal components are inline with previous rumours: A dual core A9 based CPU (although this rumour suggests it will clock in at 1.2 gHz, unlike previous rumours at 1 gHz), a dual core SGX 543 GPU, 512 megs of ram (many were hoping for 1 gig, but knowing Apple this always seemed unlikely), and dual cameras.
There are said to be some improvements coming to the display, "The improvement of iPad 2 display," the report notes, "focuses on thickness and anti-reflection, not resolution. iPad 2 display module is 30~35% thinner than iPad 1 and it’s helpful for better form factor. "
Keep in mind these are still just rumours, like all previous reports, and there is no guarantee what Apple will end up releasing until it's in our hands. I personally would have loved a 'retina' display, as it would have made it a much better book/PDF reader. I would much rather have used some of the iPad 2's new processing muscle to drive a high res display, rather than playing angry birds or Rage HD at a few extra frames per second. I suppose if they release a full featured iPhoto/iMovie suite with an SD card slot, as well as a file management system for storing data, the lack of a 'retina' display could be forgiven this time. A few highlight quotes from the release are as follows.
"iPad 2 will use [ARM] Cortex-A9 dual core processor running at 1.2GHz. Increasing 1~2% single core processor clock results in a 3~5% power increase and dual core could get a better balance between computing power and power consumption. That's the reason why Apple will use dual core for iPad 2."
"iPad 2 will also have a GPU using Imagination’s SGX543 dual core graphics technology which is 200~300% powerful than iPhone 4."
"For making full use of GPU upgrading advantage, iPad 2 needs bigger memory bandwidth. So iPad 2 has 512MB RAM, same as iPhone 4 and twice as much as iPad 1, but running at higher clock 1,066 MHz for getting bigger memory bandwidth (iPhone 4 memory clock is 800 MHz)."
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/11/01/30/report_details_ipad_2_components_5_million_unit_supply.html
