This might not be a surprise to anyone. Research firm IDC reports that the iPad represented nearly 90% of media tablets shipped in the third quarter of 2010. This is a fairly big deal because the tablet market itself picked up by a whopping 45%, going from 3.3 million tablets shipped in the second quarter to 4.8 million tablets shipped in the third quarter. With an increase of 1.5 million units being shipped in just three months, that's a sizeable increase in a growing market.
IDC restricts its study to tablets with screens larger than 5 inches but smaller than 14 inches. It also restricts the idea of "media tablets" to devices that run a "lightweight" operating system like iOS or Android. That's a
