Later this year, industry experts expect a new category of tablet devices powered by Microsoft's forthcoming Windows 8 operating system.
Until then, the iPad can float above it all in its premium interactive tablet category.
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That's why we're paying close attention to content deals for the suddenly hot tablet category of devices.
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Last year, that translated into a 57% market share across the tablet category.
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Tablets, similarly, are beginning to converge on features, size and form factors, although the tablet category lags smartphones by a couple years.
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Still, Rubin conceded, it was a tally far behind that of the 30 million cumulative units of the iPad, which broke open the modern-day tablet category, extended its lead with the iPad 2, and will likely see another revision this coming spring.
In the accessories category, wireless and tablet accessories were up, while home entertainment and PC accessories were down.
It doesn't necessarily need to create a tablet app category.
Samsung helped popularise the so-called "phablet" category - in which phones approach tablet dimensions - with its original 5.3in Galaxy Note in 2011.
Bob O'Donnell, vice president of the firm IDG, said he expects the new tablet or slate computer category to result in 3 million to 4 million device sales this year, an amount he said was on par with e-reader sales for 2009.
In the personal computer category, Amazon said the Apple MacBook, Nokia Internet Tablet PC and HP Pavilion Entertainment Notebook PC were strong sellers.
The Surface tablet, Redmond's first spawn in that category, is a bold throw-down by itself.
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Tablet computers have proven themselves to be a new computer category, as opposed to just oversized smartphones.
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In April it began selling the iPad, the first successful touch-screen tablet computer, and created a market for an entire new category of consumer electronics.
Depending on whether you count e-readers in the category, roughly a third of US consumers over age 13 currently own a tablet.
Those on multi-line accounts can still share their upgrades as long as it's within the same device category, but they won't have the option to transfer a hotspot or tablet upgrade.
It took Apple to realize the potential of the tablet, Asus (with its Eee PC) to blow up the netbook category, and MySpace and Facebook to create stable, mass-market social networks.
HDDs for notebook computers, the fastest growing category of HDDs, has experienced a hit in Q1 2011 due to the popularity of flash-based tablet computers.
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That category includes digital books, audio and video content, which have been driven by the massive growth of mobile and tablet devices.
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