Tablet Sales To Soar To 119 Million This Year

Tablet PC sales will reach 119 million units this year, according to research firm Gartner. Apple is by far the dominant player in the market, and Gartner forecast that will be the case for at least four more years. By that point, tablets powered by Google’s (NASDAQ: GOOG) Android OS will begin to catch up. One of the problems the industry will face, even then, is Apple’s ability to retain high retail prices compared to competition, which balloons its gross margins. Gartner’s new research predicts that

Worldwide media tablet sales to end users are forecast to total 118.9 million units in 2012, a 98 percent increase from 2011 sales of 60 million units. Apple’s iOS continues to be the dominant media tablet operating system (OS), as it is projected to account for 61.4 percent of worldwide media tablet sales to end users in 2012. Despite the arrival of Microsoft-based devices to this market, and the expected international rollout of the Kindle Fire, Apple will continue to be the market leader through the forecast period.