Apple and Google are set to dominate the device market, according to Ovum, an independent analysis company.
A thin but energetic Mr Jobs made a surprise return to the spotlight on Wednesday, taking the stage to unveil Apple Inc's new iPad and drawing a standing ovation.
The Silicon Valley legend has been on medical leave since late January and his reappearance, in trademark turtleneck and jeans, bolstered Apple shares and reassured investors and fans worried about his health.
Defying speculation in some tabloid reports that he was at death's door, Mr Jobs took swipes at rivals and mocked competing tablet computers. Striding back and forth across the stage at the Yerba Buena Centre, he spoke passionately about the iPad 2's features as heir apparent Tim Cook looked on.
"We've been working on this product for a while and I just didn't want to miss today," he told a packed auditorium in San Francisco, holding forth with his characteristic flair and energy.
The $US499 ($NZ685) iPad 2 is thinner than the iPhone 4, twice as fast as the last tablet and camera-equipped, and will reach retailers by March 11 in the United States and March 25 in 26 more countries, including New Zealand. The surprisingly fast launch highlights the fierce competition in the tablet market.
Ovum principal analyst Adam Leach told the Otago Daily Times, in such a fast-moving market, Apple was forced to release new versions of its hardware to stay ahead.
"Apple clearly has first-mover advantage. However, its competitors have been hot on its heels with a slew of tablet devices from big-brand vendors such as Samsung, Motorola, HP, HTC and RIM, all of which have announced tablet devices which aim to replicate the Apple experience, something which is notoriously difficult to match."
Much of the early growth of the tablet market could be attributable to the Apple iPad, a device whose sales made up 90% of the total market shipments in 2010, he said. The remaining 10% of shipments last year were of devices with variants of Google's Android operating system.
A majority of device vendors were seeking to exploit Google's latest version of the Android operating system - Honeycomb - to deliver a user experience that could compete with Apple's own iOS, Mr Leach said.
Some vendors, notably HP and RIM, were choosing to invest in their own software platforms.
Ovum believed the platform dominance of Apple and Google would continue through this year and beyond, albeit with devices based on Google's software commanding an increasing proportion of the total market share, he said.
Devices based on Google's platforms would only overtake those based on Apple's platform by 2015, when Ovum forecast 36% and 35% market shares respectively. That compared with Ovum's estimate of 10% for Google and 90% for Apple at the end of 2010, Mr Leach said.
The new iPad 2 has much of what was expected of it: a front and rear camera for taking photos and video chatting, an A5 processor for twice the CPU speed and nine-times faster graphics speed.
The power consumption remains the same as for the first A4 chip unit.
Available for the first time in white, the unit is a third thinner, down to 8.8mm from 13mm.
Gartner analyst Van Baker said the iPad 2 hardware was as good as anything on the market, the price was still very aggressive and the software just buried the competition.
• Apple sold nearly 15 million iPads in nine months of 2010, two or three times as many as analysts had predicted. The company is expected to sell 30 million or more this year, which would generate close to $20 billion in sales.
