iPad Beat Other Tablets By How Much?

Go ahead, take a guess. Did Apple have 50% of the tablet market? 60%? Maybe a really dominant 75%. After all, the iPad was enormously popular, but 2010 saw more tablets hit the market in direct competition from major players like Samsung. Surely these consumer electronics behemoths, partnered with major cellular carriers, were able to carve a piece of the market out for themselves.

No. No, they really weren’t.

According to market research firm Gartner, $9.6 billion in tablets were sold last year. Run that by Apple’s numbers, which say they made $9.566 billion on tablets, and you realize 2010 was the year Apple handed the entire electronics and computing industries their heads.

Again.

What about 2011? After all, we’ve got Galaxy Tabs and Xooms and Playbooks out the wazoo. They’re going to kick the iPad 2 back to Cupertino, right?

Sure, if Honeycomb is ever fixed for the Xoom. If the Galaxy Tab can overcome its terrible current reputation. If the Playbook can sell, which is becoming an increasingly iffy proposition.

Gartner thinks $26 billion will be spent on tablets in 2011, and that the only thing keeping Apple from controlling 100% of the market again is iPad shortages, which have been a real problem. We don’t think they’ll own 100% of the market next year…but that won’t be because of the competition so far.