Leaked photo is reportedly of iPad 3 display

A leaked picture is claiming to show what will be the much-hyped Retina Display for the next iteration of Apple’s iPad.

The picture, which is being attributed to a Japanese language site, clearly shows some sort of component from Sharp, the manufacturer of Apple’s new super-resolution mobile display.

The display is already being called the most significant advancement for the iPad 3, even though no official details have been announced yet.

In order to accommodate such a powerful display, though, Apple will need a more powerful backlighting system. That will reportedly force the device to be 0.7mm thicker than the super slim iPad 2. Surely for any Apple fan, though, that won’t be a deterrent for owning what will be the highest-resolution tablet on the market.

As for other features, those remain a mystery but there have been some solid leads on what to expect.

For starters, it’s likely to have connectivity with high-speed 4G LTE networks on AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint. It will also reportedly have a larger battery to accommodate for the increased technology and perhaps even give it a longer battery life than the iPad 2.

As for when we’ll get an official look at the new tablet, your guess is as good as ours. We’ve seen reports that it would happen early February (so much for that), another one said it will actually ship in March, and another one said there were production issues. So who knows?