Seriousl

y, who bets against Apple in the tablet race? Maybe mobile tech giants such as RIM, Samsung and Dell, will, given that they're readying Blackberry and Android tablets to compete with the iPad, but not many others.

When the super-hyped iPad arrived in Apple stores in April, Apple racked up three million sales in the first 80 days. Within a few weeks the iPad captured 16 percent of the e-reader market to take second place behind the established Amazon Kindle with 62 percent, according to ChangeWave Research. The iPad posted sales of US$2 billion in its first quarter and is on pace to have 84 percent of the market this year, according to ISuppli.