iPad to Dominate Tablet Sales for Years

Tablet sales are expected to almost double in 2012, thanks in large part to Apple's iPad, according to Tuesday data from Gartner.

The expected release of Windows 8 later this year will help Microsoft move into the tablet space with enterprise pickup, but Redmond will not see significant tablet gains in 2012, Gartner said.

"Despite PC vendors and phone manufacturers wanting a piece of the pie and launching themselves into the media tablet market, so far, we have seen very limited success outside of Apple with its iPad," said Carolina Milanesi, research vice president at Gartner. "As vendors struggled to compete on price and differentiate enough on either the hardware or ecosystem, inventories were built and only 60 million units actually reached the hands of consumers across the world. The situation has not improved in early 2012, when the arrival of the new iPad has reset the benchmark for the product to beat."

Consumers snapped up about 60 million tablets in 2011, a number that is expected to grow to 118.9 million this year, Gartner said. About 61.4 percent of tablet purchases this year, however, will likely be for the Apple iPad. Android tablets will probably make up 31.9 percent of tablet sales in 2012.

Gartner predicted that Apple will sell just under 100 million iPads in 2013 and about 170 million by 2016. Android tablet sales could hit about 62 million next year and 138 million by 2016, Gartner said.

If Windows 8 makes its debut on schedule, meanwhile, Microsoft tablets are expected to make up 4.1 percent of tablet sales this year and 11.8 percent by 2016, Gartner said.

"IT departments will see Windows 8 as the opportunity to deploy tablets on an OS that is familiar to them and with devices offered by many enterprise-class suppliers," Milanesi said. "This means that we see Windows 8 as a strong IT-supplied offering more so than an OS with a strong consumer appeal."

By 2015, about 35 percent of tablet sales will be business-related, but many consumers will use their gadgets for work and entertainment purposes - sending off a work email and watching a Netflix movie, for example.

"This poses a big threat to vendors that thought about focusing on the enterprise market who will now have to become appealing to consumers as well," Milanesi speculated, pointing to RIM and the smartphone market. "The difference here is that tablets have been created for consumers first and then relied on an ecosystem of apps and services that make them more manageable in the enterprise."

For more on that, see .

On the RIM front, Gartner said the company will probably see sales plummet this year to about 510,000 PlayBook sales from 1.9 million last year. That could rebound slightly in 2013 before dropping again by 2016.

For more, see and the , as well as our slideshow of the 12 Best Android Tablet Apps below.