Business Enterpraise Information

Gartner projects that global spending on media tablets will be as much $29.4 billion this year, up from $9.6 billion in 2010. Here's the kicker: IT spending on tablets will be a noticeable chunk of that spending, Gartner predicts.

Today, Gartner reiterated what it forecast in January: IT organizations will spend $3.6 trillion this year. However, the analyst firm notched down growth projections to 5.1 percent from 5.6 percent. Spending would have declined, too, had Gartner not added media tablets like iPad to the mix. The addition boosts hardware spending growth to 9.5 percent from 7.5 percent year over year.

"The addition of media tablets, reinforced by an expected additional decline in the value of the dollar, accounts for the increase in top-line growth," Richard Gordon, Gartner research vice president, said in a statement. "Absent the addition of media tablets, the forecast would have slightly declined in constant-dollar terms; however, with their addition, there's virtually no change in underlying forecast growth at the level of overall IT."

Gartner expects big media tablet spending growth -- 52 percent compounded annual average -- through 2015. Apple's iPad already is cannibalizing consumer PC sales. Spending on media tablets means IT organizations almost certainly would spend less somewhere else. Right now, Apple and Samsung are the only tablet manufacturers shipping in volume, but the market really belongs to Apple -- hence that backdoor into the enterprise.

Apple ended 2010 with 83 percent global media tablet market share, based on shipments, according to IDC. The analyst firm predicts that iPad will command at least 70 percent share throughout 2011. So increased tablet spending and enterprise adoption will be more likely to benefit Apple than competitors, at least in the short term.

That said, there's a dark horse in the media tablet race. Next month, Research in Motion will begin shipping its PlayBook tablet in volume. For all BlackBerry's recent...