Screen resolution is something that mobile device manufacturers are getting very competitive over especially on tablets, where a lot of textual content is read. A higher resolution makes the text appear sharper and it also helps with the graphics on most of the modern mobile games.

Google is looking to make a new version of the Nexus 7 to be released next quarter, and it will come with a high-resolution display. This is way ahead of the rumors for the iPad Mini, where the expected Retina upgrade will be released sometime near the end of the year, probably around the one year anniversary of Apple's first release of the iPad Mini.

It’s unknown what resolution either tablet will have, but I expect the Nexus 7 to go to 1920 by 1200 pixels, as some other tablets are currently running at that, so it won’t require as much developer work to get apps looking well-adjusted. The iPad Mini would probably step up to 2048 by 1536 pixels, to keep it in line with the full sized Retina iPads and to cut down on app developer optimization time. Both of these upgrades will kill battery life though, so the two companies need to include powerful batteries.