Research firm Gartner predicts explosive growth in tablet sales

“The usage model is closer to what consumers do with a smartphone while on the go than what they do on a PC when they are at their desk. It is about running applications, playing games, watching video content, reading books and magazines, surfing the Web, updating your status on your social network of choice and checking e-mail,” Milanesi said.

Since the immediate appeal of the tablet computer to corporate users is for fast access to e-mail, calendars, documents and Web applications, most workers will not yet be able to replace their laptops with tablets. That means many will now carry three devices, including their smartphones. Eventually, Gartner predicts, the devices will become family-focused and appeal more to consumers. 

“Price might be an inhibitor in the early days, but this will soon
decrease as competition will get fiercer,” Milanesi said. “The market will soon be
flooded by a whole bunch of different models that will offer a variety
of operating systems, feature sets, price points and screen sizes.

We believe that mobile operators will shift their marketing and subsidy
from netbooks to media tablets in an attempt to sell more mobile
broadband subscriptions.”

She also said 7-inch tablets may be popular in the short term due to the limitations of Google’s Android mobile operating system, but eventually Gartner thinks 10-inch tablets will be the industry standard.