By Adam Leach

In such a fast moving market Apple is forced to release new versions of its hardware to stay ahead. Apple clearly had first mover advantage, however, its competitors have been hot on its heals with a slew of tablet devices from big brand vendors such as Samsung, Motorola, HP, HTC and RIM, all of which have announced tablet devices which aim to replicate the Apple experience, which is notoriously difficult to match.

Much of the early growth of the tablet market can be attributable to the Apple iPad, a device whose sales constituted 90% of the total market opportunity in 2010. The remaining 10% of shipments in 2010 was made up of devices running variants of Google’s Android OS.

A majority of device vendors are looking to exploit Google's latest version of the Android operating system, honeycomb, to deliver a user experience that can compete with Apple's own iOS. However, some vendors notably HP and RIM are choosing to invest in their own software platforms. Ovum’s belief is that the platform dominance of Apple and Google will continue through 2011 and beyond, albeit with devices based on Google’s software platform commanding an increasing proportion of the total market opportunity.

However, devices based on Google’s platforms will only overtake those based on Apple’s platform by 2015, when we forecast 36% and 35% market shares respectively, of a total market with shipments of approximately 150m units in 2015. This compares with Ovum’s estimate of 10% for Google and 90% for Apple at the end of 2010.

About the author and Ovum

Adam Leach is principal analyst at Ovum, which provides clients with independent analysis for supporting business strategies and technology decisions. Ovum’s research draws upon over 400,000 interviews a year with business and technology, telecoms and sourcing decision-makers, giving the company insight not only into business requirements but also the technology that organisations must support. Ovum is part of the Datamonitor group.