Philip Elmer-DeWitt writes on CNNMoney’s Apple 2.0 blog that Gartner has today issued a report on the tablet market, in which it says that it expects Apple’s iPad to dominate said market for the forseeable future. As far as the tablet market as a whole is concerned, Gartner’s figures show that tablet sales are expected to reach 118.9 million in 2012, making an increase of a whopping 98% from 2011. Gartner adds that despite growing competition from Google Android tablets, as well as the expected arrival of Microsoft Windows 8 tablets, Apple’s share of the market should still remain buoyant and largely unaffected by its supposed rivals, with Gartner predicting that Apple’s share of the tablet market will drop only slightly to 61.4% from 66.6% last year.

“Despite PC vendors and phone manufacturers wanting a piece of the pie and launching themselves into the media tablet market, so far, we have seen very limited success outside of Apple with the iPad,” said Carolina Milanesi, research vice president at Gartner.

Source: Gartner: Tablet sales to double this year. The iPad still rules - Apple 2.0 - Fortune Tech