Apple is reportedly facing delay in the release of a a new version of the iPad Mini with a high-resolution "retina" display, people who work in the company's supply chain said. According to Reuters, Apple had plans to release the new iPad Mini this month. But Apple's supply chain is now gearing up to make retina displays for the new gadget, which means the gadgets could be available in only limited quantities this year and the company may miss the chance to cash in on the year-end holiday shopping season.

Apple declined to comment about any product launches.

Retina displays are available on some full-sized iPads, and similar resolutions are available on iPad Mini competitors such as Google's Nexus 7, as well as Amazon's seven-inch Kindle Fire HDX due to go on sale this month.

LG Display, Samsung Display and Sharp all vied to manufacture the panels, supply chain sources said.

The currently available iPad Mini is more expensive than everyone else in the 7- to 8-inch tablet segment. Amazon's new 7-inch Kindle Fire is priced from $229 for 16GB wifi-only models, while Google's Nexus 7 offers a similar screen size and storage capacity at the same price. By comparison, the cheapest model in Apple's current 7.9-inch iPad Mini lineup with 16GB storage size starts at $329. So it would be possible for Apple to reduce its price in order to appeal more consumers. A possible way to reduce costs would be to roll out an iPad Mini with a smaller 8 gigabytes of memory.