The Future of Tablet Rental: Will iPad Veer to Businesses and Apple Loyalists?

The last holiday season fared well for the tablet niche of the tech market.

According to recent stats released by Pew Internet, the number of U.S. tablet owners almost doubled from 10 percent to 19 percent from the middle of December to the start of January.

But it wasn’t just iPads this time.

Other reports point to those tablets recently released by Amazon and Barnes & Noble – stripped down with a smaller price tag – and their ereaders as greatly contributing to the increase.

According to Anthony DiClemente, Barclays analyst, as many as 5.5 million Kindle Fire units were sold during December. Amazon itself revealed that more than 1 million Kindle Devices (Fire and ereaders) were sold each week throughout the month.

Similarly, but a little more vague, Barnes & Noble indicated that millions of Nook devices were sold during the holidays, making the tablet "the company’s biggest bestseller in its nearly 40-year history."

Of course, iPads also are expected to have fared well for the period, although exact figures have not yet been released by Apple. Estimations from a group of Fortune analysts predict the tech major sold almost 14 million iPads last quarter – just about double the sales from the period last fiscal year.

Although Apple’s tablet technology is still clearly the frontrunner in its class, the addition of cheaper, fully functional if not totally fully featured alternatives has made this market a bit more diverse, and interesting. Is it possible that tablets will continue to develop in tiers, eventually splitting into home and professional editions – much like PCs? If this happened, it is likely that Apple would continue to appeal to businesses, and of course, its brand enthusiasts due to its price and complete set of features.

As this area of hardware continues to grow in its complexity and sophistication, businesses will continually find new uses for the portable devices. No longer sought out as a mere novelty, rental organizations like Vernon Computer Source have seen the demand for devices explode among marketing groups, educational institutions and trade shows –with no sign of a delay in the near future.

To learn more about renting tablets for your organization, simply use the quote form to the right and tell us what you’re looking for – an associate will provide you with your requested information within the hour.