Why on earth guess at 10.5 million? Not 10, not 11, but 10.5?
If he is saying "lots, if you have a factory, but not so many that most people will have seen one", why not say so.
I loathe pundits who make up numbers to unreasonable precision.
The key phrase is "as many as" and "ship". Which suggests that the market will bear no more than that, the manufacturing plants that are in existence can churn out no more than that.
Note they didn't say "sell"
Also, bear in mind it's Gartner, who have a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy going on. If Gartner says it will be popular, it in turn means that blue chips will listen to them and jump on the band wagon.
count me as one person who won't be buying a tablet in 2010. Certainly not until they have some kind os stiff protection for the screen, a lot more power than an iPad (and a proper OS), and maybe a slide out keyboard of somekind,... wait a sec,... i already have one,... it's called a laptop !
Robert, I'm with you on this.
Most of these market researchers couldn't forecast Xmas but insist on giving figures to several decimal places..........
To add insult to injury they then want to sell their reports for thousands.
Not dissimiliar to pollsters forecasting the result of a General Election !
Better to read tea leaves.
Caveat Emptor.
add +1 to that number :) ... however, i'm waiting for something with a reasonably low price, pixel qi screen, long battery life and wifi+3g hsdpa support.... i.e. NOT APPLE's ipad... i think/hope that notion ink's adam will be that something, if they ever get to shipping.
Just read a review - screen is normal to heavily armoured, touch is detected by tiny light beams across the screen. iThis means you can reach out and NOT touch the screen and use the cursor. I covet.