Tablets are going to be huge next year, that much we know. But just how big a phenomenon will they be? For that, we turn to Taiwan's Industrial Economics and Knowledge Center, aka IEK. Today the organization predicted that tablet shipments will reach 48 million units next year. If you're wondering which device(s) will be the most popular, the IEK has an answer for that, too: the iPad. Even so, Android-based devices will fare pretty well for themselves in 2011, as the IEK predicts that 25 percent of all tablets shipped next year will feature Google's OS. Android smartphone shipments, meanwhile, are expected to reach 270 million units.
Considering that we're expecting tablets from Motorola, HTC, Samsung, LG, Dell, and perhaps Lenovo, it shouldn't come as a surprise that the IEK expects a quarter of all tablet devices to feature Android in 2011. What will be interesting is seeing which of those tablets will get offered by carriers, which is one of the things that'll be helpful in making the device popular with the mainstream. It's kind of tough to predict which devices will be hits without knowing anything about any of them (save for Moto and Dell's offerings), but if you had to guess, which manufacturer's tablets do you think will see success next year?
