Once upon a time tablets were non existent and it was amazing to internet users that we could have something as light and compact as a netbook.

Fast forward a few years and tablets are everywhere and the market is growing at a faster rate everyday with Apple’s iPad controlling most of the market share. According to a study from HIS iSupply, the iPad accounted for 62% of worldwide shipments.

Amazon’s Kindle Fire offered the most competition after being released right before the 2011 holiday season, accounting for 14% of all shipments in the fourth quarter.

The iSupply study also hints that Apple’s iPhone 4s may have also provided some competition to the iPad as people thought it would be better to invest in a new phone instead of a tablet. With the announcement of the new iPad yesterday, it will be even more important for the competition to think of ways to keep up with the tablet market share.

While eMarketer predicts that the iPad penetration will almost double from 2011 to 2013, it doesn’t mean all hope is lost for other tablet manufacturers. The low cost and increase in features may drive some consumers to purchase other brands. It is predicted that the iPads market share will drop from the astonishing 83% it held in 2011 to only 68% by the end of 2014.

Given the growth of tablet popularity in general, it doesn’t look like the tablet market will be losing business anytime soon. The Android operations system has already offered a lot of the new features that will be seen in the newest iPad.  As long as manufacturers continue to keep up with Apple and market the features iPad doesn’t offer they should have no problem taking some of the iPad users away.

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