• Reuters, Wednesday, January 19, 2011 12:02 AM

Companies will buy more than 10 million tablet computers this year, consultancy Deloitte said, supporting recent research from Gartner which sees the global market for Apple's iPad, rising to 55 million devices this year from 19.5 million in 2010. That could open the market for Research in Motion's 7-inch PlayBook tablet, set to launch in February or March, which received positive early reviews after the company offered hands-on demos earlier this month at CES trade show.

Deloitte said healthcare and retail sectors alone could purchase some 5 million tablets this year. The surge of tablet market, coupled with strong growth of smartphone sales means in 2011, for the first time, sales of personal computers will represent less than half of total computing device market.

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