Seven Reasons the Apple iPad Will Remain King of the Tablets

Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL ) today (Wednesday) is expected to launch the iPad 2 - the latest iteration of a tablet device that has revolutionized the mobile computing segment. Indeed, while most of its competitors have yet to release even their first tablet attempt, Apple is already at work on its third, which shows just how entrenched Apple's lead is in this relatively new and fast growing market. The debut of the iPad last year ignited a tablet market that had languished for nearly a decade. Apple sold 3 million iPads in the three months following the device's April release, compared to just 2 million total tablets sold in all of 2009. As with the iPod and iPhone before it, the iPad transformed its market and established Apple as its trendsetter. Research firm IHS iSuppli (NYSE: IHS ) expects sales of media tablets like the iPad to skyrocket from 17.4 million units worldwide in 2010 to 202 million in 2015 . It sees the overall tablet market (which includes "PC-type" tablets with more robust computer abilities) to grow from 19.7 million in 2010 to 242.3 million in 2015. With so much potential in this relatively new market, competitors - such as Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. (PINK: SSNHY ), Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE: HPQ ) and Research in Motion Limited (Nasdaq: RIMM ) - are releasing tablets of their own. However, the iPad's competitors, even those using Google Inc.'s (Nasdaq: GOOG ) Android operating system, face an uphill battle in their quest to knock Apple from its early dominant position in the tablet segment of mobile computing. It's true that the iPad's share of the tablet market dropped to 75% in the fourth quarter of 2010 from an unsustainable 95.5% in the third quarter. But it's likely that iPad sales will stabilize at a high level, with Apple holding at least 50% of the market for years to come. Here are seven reasons why...