Apple Totally Dominates Tablet MarketApple Totally Dominates Tablet Market

Apple's iPad is completely dominating the consumer tablet market with over 95 percent share. They were the first to market with a worthwhile device and they executed very well. Can anyone hope to overcome their lead?History is somewhat repeating itself here. The iPod wasn't the first MP3 player by any stretch of the imagination, but it was the first that offered the combination of large capacity storage, long battery life, an intuitive and simple user interface and a built in mechanism to directly and legally download music one song at a time. It blew away the competition and today, the closest competitor is probably the Microsoft Zune, but that is in the low single digits.

The iPod has been so successful that MP3 players are generically known as iPods, just as bathroom tissue is often called Kleenex regardless of the brand.

Now the iPad is in a similar situation. Again, not the first tablet, but it was the first to offer performance, rich content including applications, music, video and ebooks, and an attractive form factor in one package.

Now we'll have tablets sporting Android, Meego, Blackberry and WebOS. Android may have a shot at making inroads as it comes from a position of strength with their phone platform. Meego has no share at all right now and WebOS barely does. Blackberry is a smartphone powerhouse but on the decline with Blackberry 6.0 not offering much salvation for the smartphone maker.

While I doubt a year from now Apple will retain 95 percent share, I am skeptical that it will be significantly lower. Do you think an Android tablet can garner broad consumer recognition and support that will put a significant dent in the iPad's share?