iPad 3 will feature a 2048x1536 Retina display

If you were curious if the iPad 3 would ship with a Retina display after all the rumors, well, wonder no more. MacRumors has independently confirmed that the panels that are to be used in the next iPad sport twice the linear resolution as the original iPad and iPad 2, sporting four times as many pixels. The site obtained one of the new panels and put it under a microscope in order to check out the pixel density. The results show that the pixels in the newer display panel are a quarter of the size of the pixels found in previous models.

MacRumors does note that the panels are not directly from Apple, however, they are listed as OEM replacement displays for the iPad 3 and are in mass production. The difficulty in creating 9.7" display panels with a 2048x1536 resolution make this all but obvious that these are for the next iPad.