Tablet Growth to Skyrocket in 2011

More and more consumers are expected to purchase new tablet computers this year. In fact, about 55.7 million devices are projected to find new homes in 2011, 200 percent increase from 2010.

The momentum is expected to keep up over the next few years, too, according to a report by DisplaySearch, a market research firm.

"The upcoming product announcements, introductions and demonstrations in the coming weeks will build on the tremendous momentum that the market has already seen and will lead to segmentation in the tablet PC market," said Richard Shim, mobile computing analyst for DisplaySearch. "This segmentation translates to significant shipment growth and proliferation in the short and long term."

This means that shoppers will have more options to pick from moving forward. The success of the iPad has sparked debates about the best size and display format for tablets. New devices purporting to be more user-friendly in terms of height and width are expected to pop up in stores by the end of the year.

The significant growth of tablets is expected to take over the notebook mobile PC categories in the future, but this is likely to vary by region, DisplaySearch said.

The company predicts that tablets could replace PCs in many households.

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