said by Thinkdiff:Agreed the resolution isn't impressive, but it's yet another case where you have to chose practicality over specs.
The only resolutions that made sense for the iPad Mini were 1024x768 or 2048x1536.
What makes you think those are the only two resolutions? They could have easily used 1600x1200, its 4:3 and would have scaled down retina capable apps, and scaled up non retina apps...
1600x1200 would probably be close enough PPI to the iPad3/4's retina PPI