As far as success in the tablet space goes, Apple (AAPL 1.27%) is the far and away gold standard.
For starters, Apple helped invent the tablet market, at least in its modern version, when it introduced the iPad in 2010. Since then, Apple has sold nearly 184 million iPads, generating billions of dollars in profits for itself and its shareholders.
Apple's recipe for success
Part of why Apple has experienced such amazing results is that the tablet, as a device, has been one of the most rapidly adopted technologies to come along in quite some time -- perhaps ever, but that's beside the point.
This dynamic goes a long way in explaining how growth went from zero to 60 (and then some) in such a short amount of time. However, an often overlooked downside of that same dynamic is that the tablet market will probably move toward saturation faster than other markets.
And while tablet market growth should remain upbeat for several years to come, research firm IDC recently issued a sobering reminder that today's heady growth climate will come to an end. In the following video, tech and telecom analyst Andrew Tonner looks at the news from IDC and the possible ramifications it could have for tablet powerhouses such as Apple.
