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The world of computer tablets now has many players competing for the market. Reports from the ABI Research shows that Apple’s iPad was still a force to reckon with by the third quarter of 2010. The iPad commanded a market share of 93 percent globally. The report was released on the 23^rd of February and showed that tablet shipments got to 4.5 million units. Apple having been the first to market the iPad still had a strong lead position in the tablet market. This though can be expected to change overtime.

The DisplaySearch put Apple as the top company in mobile PC shipments in 2010’s Q4. DisplaySearch just like Canalys decided to include tablets in their mobile PC figures. Tim Cook, Apple’s COO said that the company does not give much time thinking about cannibalizations as the Apple MacBook Air and the iPad seem designed to compete with each other.

The ABI report also gave information on e-books and netbooks. Netbooks are a category that saw a drop in demand in the first half of 2010. Sales picked up in the third quarter with the introduction of PC OEMs which introduced platforms that offered thinner and lighter devices that were fitted with dual –core processors. They also got a facelift getting a new sleek appearance.

On the side of e-readers the U.S was the leading market. The three top vendors remained as Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Sony. Barnes & Noble introduced its color version of its Nook reader just in time for the holiday shopping. The color version was also a first in the industry among the top e-readers vendors. Amazon on the other hand also released its third generation of the Kindle.

Nevertheless there has been tension between netbooks and tablets. This was made more obvious in January when Acer reacted to deny that it was replacing its netbooks with tablets. A company’s salesperson had made a statement to suggest this and the company was refuting it. Acer gave a statement which stated that there was change in the computer market and it was adjusting itself to this situation. The range of devices that users could choose from was increasing by the day and tablets were just part of the choice.  Tablets were going to find their place next to notebooks and netbooks.

Many have given their forecast on the future sales of tablets. Morgan Stanley feels that most of these forecasts are too conservative has consequently raised tablet sales in 2012 to 100 million units. China will become the biggest market accounting for 41 percent of the shipments. The U.S will be overtaken by such countries as Japan and many of the countries in Europe to end up accounting for just a mere 11 percent.

With this figure we can only wait and see whose predictions are right after all they are just predictions and as witnessed in the past they can be changed over and over again. Only time will show the reality and well by then there will be no need for predictions.