WSJ: iPad 2 In Production, But No Retina Display

In the grand, glorious world that we call ‘Apple Rumors’, we have become accustomed to certain rules. For example, when the Wall Street Journal reports something, it’s usually a little more credible and believable than your run-of-the-mill rumor.

So you’ll perhaps be pleased to learn that the WSJ is reporting the iPad 2 is in production, “according to people familiar with the matter” (ah, that old gem). The new iPad is said to be lighter, thinner, faster – but will have not, as many have reported, have the so-called ‘retina display’, an Apple marketing term for a screen on which the resolution is so high, you can’t distinguish individual pixels.

Of course, anyone ‘familiar’ with the matter would be aware that in order for Apple to provide a display with a higher-than-HD resolution, they’d not only have to produce an incredibly expensive screen, they’d also need some serious CPU/GPU power to drive it – and even the quad-core chips in Sony’s NGP aren’t powerful enough.

But given announcements like this one from Texas Instruments, it’s likely that by the time iPad 3 comes around, Apple would have access to the tech to build a tablet with a retina display.

So the big question for prospective iPad buyers is this: do you buy an iPad 2? Or do you wait for the high-res display you know is coming at some point?