After all, just about every other Apple product has a Retina display and the screen on the iPad mini was one of the few bad things about it.
There's no release date yet but expect it sometime in the latter half of 2013.
There's a good chance Apple will roll out iOS 7 to go with their shiny new tablets, and while literally nothing is yet known about that, you could always check out the 12 things we want to see.
4. Windows tablets
Having ignored it for a long time, Microsoft is finally making a big play for the tablet market. They've launched not one, but two tablet-friendly operating systems in the form of Windows 8 and Windows RT, and Microsoft's own Surface tablet has already launched.
Next year should see a host of new Windows tablets from other manufacturers. We already know about a bunch of them, from the Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet 2, to the Acer Iconia W700.
But that's just the beginning.
CES 2013 is just around the corner and it's not unlikely that manufacturers will use the opportunity to announce new Windows tablets.
Just don't expect a keynote from Microsoft - 2012 was its last. Any big news from Microsoft themselves is unlikely to come before its 'Build' event towards the end of the year.
5. Everything else
Amazon are having quite a lot of success with their Kindle Fire line, so expect the 3rd generation Fire to launch sometime next year, ready to go head-to-head with the new Nexus.
There is likely to be an increasing number of low-cost, high-spec tablets available from other manufacturers too.
Asus are rumoured to be working on a low-cost 7-inch slate and other companies will probably look to release budget devices of their own in order to stay competitive.
With Blackberry 10 launching in January there's every chance that RIM will make another play for the tablet market too. Whether they'll have any more success than with the ill-fated Blackberry Playbook remains to be seen.
With all this, and probably a few surprises besides, it looks set to be one of the biggest years yet for tablets, and we'll bring you coverage of it all as it happens.
