We all know that the tablet market is becoming pretty huge and, with all of the new tablet devices coming in the next few months, it's only going to get bigger.  With all of this growth, someone has to lose a little market share, and one research firm thinks that the PC sector will be the one to suffer.  Gartner announced today that it's lowering its 2010 and 2011 estimates for worldwide PC shipments by around three percent each thanks to the increasing popularity of "media tablets" like the iPad and Galaxy Tab.  By 2014, tablets are expected to cause the PC market to shrink by about 10 percent, says Ranjit Atwal, research director at Gartner.  Other research firms are reaching similar conclusions, with Citigroup predicting that there will be 11 million fewer PCs sold next year thanks to tablets.  Additionally, Citigroup believes that there will be around 35 million tablets sold next year, with the iPad making up around 75 percent of that total.

The fact that tablets are extremely popular isn't a surprise, as we've seen evidence of that quite a bit recently.  The Galaxy Tab moved 600,000 units in just the first month of availability, Apple has reported that iPads have just about outsold Mac computers, and there are a ton of manufacturers jumping on the bandwagon with their own tablet offerings.  As powerful as tablets are becoming, I could definitely see some users completely replacing their traditional computers with a tablet.  Sure, you're not going to write a thesis or edit a film on a tablet, but those of us that only need to browse the Web, send some email, and listen to music could totally get by on just a tablet, especially with the ever-expanding app offerings on each platform.  How many of you think that you or someone you know could do just about all of your computing with a tablet?

Via MacRumors, Gartner