Tablet Computers Are Gaining Popularity

Eleven million media tablets are expected to ship this by the end of this year. The number is part of a study done by ABI Research on the tablet market. ABI originally projected 4 million tablets to be released this year, however it has tripled that number in its latest report, due in part to the wide availability of the iPad.

The iPad is expected to be a significant part of that 11 million unit number, however not all of it. Delayed tablet releases from other manufactures have reduced the iPads competition in the marketplace, if new tablets are released soon they could provide quite a boom in the market toward the end of the year.

In an e-mail to Information Week Jeff Orr, principal analyst for ABI indicated "There are several device OEMs planning to launch tablets, but no significant brand challenges were launched during the first half of the year...there could be anywhere from three to five vendors that gain some traction by year-end."

What is it with tablet computers?

I get it, you can hold it in your hand, read a book, watch a movie....you can do roughly the same thing with a netbook computer at a considerably lower price point. Netbooks also have one important feature that all of these tablets lack: a keyboard.

No matter how hard I try I never can be all that productive without having a physical keyboard in front of me. I've even got an external keyboard hooked up to my MacBook just because a "real" keyboard just feels better.

A huge part of that 11 million unit number was iPads. Apple fans have been waiting for an Apple tablet computer for years. There are more than likely tons of people who would have purchased the tablet from Apple not matter how amazing (or unamazing) it might have been. The sheer number of applications available for the iPad

A study by the same firm has also indicated that Linux-based operating systems will dominate the non-smartphone market by 2015. That's less than 5 years away. The huge jump in Linux-based OS's is due in part to the growing popularity of Android. People love mobile applications, and computers they can take with them wherever they go.

Do you currently own a tablet computer or plan on buying one soon? Which would you prefer an Android tablet or an iPad?