Gartner predicts rosy future for the iPad, Honeycomb to trail

Gartner is a well-trusted tech oracle,but when it comes to predicting events in a 5-year timeframe,predictions become largely equivalent to palm-reading. Well, theremight be one exception – tablets. Apple has basically created thetablet market with the original iPad and Gartner's latest prognosissays that Cupertino is to remain the dominant company. But even SteveJobs won't be able to sustain the overwhelming popularity that theiPad is enjoying nowadays – the tablet's share will slip to some69% this year and continue falling to around 47% in 2015.

Google's Android Honeycomb has thesupport of pretty much every other manufacturer out there, but this –in Gartner's views – won't prove enough for a quick start.Honeycomb tablets are to conquer the market gradually, starting froma 14% share in 2010, to reach nearly 20% this year and sprinting tothe finish to close the gap with almost 39% in 2015.

The other major contender out thereseems to be RIM's BlackBerry PlayBook. The 7-inch tablet holds groundwith its business allure and QNX-based platform, but it willencounter one major obstacle on its way – apps. Nevertheless,Gartner forecasts bright future for the tablet which will supposedlyoccupy 5.6 of the market this year, only to reach the healthy 10% in2015. But finally, HP's TouchPad will face the mostdifficulties. Gartner's predictions speak for a slow start for thetablet which will finish 2015 with a weak 3% presence.

Just last week, the analysts fromGartner presented us with their 5-year perspective on the cell phonemarket, but it was a whole different story with Android on top of thecharts and Windows Phone picking up pace. Microsoft's OS, somewhatsurprisingly, is not even in the forecast here, which makes us thinkthat we might see a whole new model to reflect the three-horse racethat Redmond wants to stage. Whatever the future brings, one thing iscertain – the market will be a very competitive one and this isalways good for the end-user.

source: Gartnervia mocoNews