We all know that there will be a wave of tablets for manufacturers like HTC, Motorola, LG, Samsung, and Apple coming over the next six months to one year, but will anyone buy them?  Analyst firm Gartner certainly thinks so, predicting that tablet sales will reach approximately 19.5 million this year.  The growth that these tablet-style devices is going to continue to explode over the next few years, says Gartner, with sales reaching 54.8 million in 2011 and 208 million through 2014.  Of course, someone (or something) is going to suffer from all of this tablet love, and it looks like e-readers, gaming devices, and media players will be the victims.  The most cannibalized segment of the market, though, will be "mini notebooks," says Carolina Milanesi.  She believes that as tablet prices drop below $300 over the next two years, these netbook-type devices will be hit the hardest.

We know that Apple's iPad has been doing extremely well since its launch, and if pricing is competitive, I'm sure that several of the Android-based tablets will experience similar success.  Considering how these tablets are capable of so many functions, I wouldn't be surprised to see sales of MP3/MP4 players and e-readers shrink a bit.  We already know that gaming on the iPhone has had an effect on dedicated gaming devices like the DS and PSP, so I'm sure that the same thing will happen with tablets.  This is especially true when more developers are able to create tablet-specific versions of the games.  So tell us, readers, how many of you have a tablet or will buy one?  Has it/will it replace some of your other gadgets?

Via IntoMobile, Gartner