The Financial Times reports tablet numbers will reach 300M by 2015 (nearly reaching 2008 PC sales) according to Credit Suisse. 

However the future tablet market will mirror the current netbook market, being "subject to brutal price competition" and split between high-end and budget models. 

According to Credit Suisse Apple will lock-up the high end of the market, as customers will refuse to pay iPad prices for non-iOS tablets.

Meanwhile the rest of the competition (Lenovo, Motorola, HP, RIM, Sony, Samsung) will have to lower their prices-- unless another company manages to close the iOS quality gap.

Amazon could also prove to be a spanner in the works-- if the rumours of an Amazon Kindle tablet costing $250 prove true, "price competition could touch even Apple’s beautiful devices," the FT says.

Go Tablet Computers: Come Round to My Pad (FT.com)

In-Stat predicts tablet shipments will reach 250M in 2017, thanks to increasing competition from major companies (including Samsung, Motorola, RIM, LG and HTC) entering the market.

The analyst says tablets are competing not only against PCs-- but against all CE and computing devices.

The tablet market and its ecosystem will continue evolving, with the next few generations showing increasing differentiation towards different market segments and useage models.

Meanwhile degrading prices will make tablets increasingly attractive to the mainstream and enterprise markets, together with with increasing mobile apps and new semiconductor technologies.

The dominant tablet form factor will remain 9-11", with 56% share of the 2017 market.

Maintaining over 90% of the 2017 market are iOS and Android, with Windows following far behind-- the analyst says a number of companies will fail in the tablet market due to not supporting one of the leading OS platforms.

Go Tablet Shipments to Approach 250M in 2017 (In-Stat)

Mobile data weighs heavily in European customers' device purchases according to Yankee Group's latest study, as mobile data services continue growing further. 

The study finds European users (from France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK) use SMS as their main means of communications-- preferring it to traditional voice communications. 

Alongside texting, smartphones will also fuel the rise in the use of instant messaging, video watching and social networking over the next 2 years. 18% of European users already access their social networking via mobile phone daily, Yankee Group says. 

Consistent service performance ranks as the most important factor Europeans consider when gauging network service quality. 

"This shift to a data-centric mobile communications marketplace will create new business models," Yankee continues, saying such increasingly mobile behaviour will lead to "more captivating mobile experiences" from suppliers wanting to, well, supply what the market demands. 

Go Data Dominates Europeans' Mobile Buying Behaviour (Yankee Group)

Gartner reports WW Q2 2011 mobile device sales total 428.7M, growing 16.7% Y-o-Y-- with smartphones accounting for 25% of overall sales (up from Q2 2010's 17%). 

One can safely say smartphones are on the rise-- at feature phones' expense, as customers in mature markets go for entry- or mid-level Android smartphones. 

However W. European smartphone sales show Q-o-Q decline, as replacement sales start showing what Gartner says is "signs of fatigue."

Sell-in demand also slows down in Q2 2011, with a -4% Y-o-Y decrease due to inventory buildup during Q1 2011 in reaction to potential component shortages due to the Japanese earthquake.  

Nokia still leads the WW mobile device market, with 22.8% market share (down from Q2 2010's 30.3%)-- even if Gartner says its smartphone sales are low due to market competition, low Symbian demand and inventory management issues in Europe. 

Samsung comes 2nd, with 16.3% mobile device market share and sales totalling 69.8M-- 5M of which being Galaxy S II sales. 

Following are LG (5.7% market share for Q2 2011) and Apple (4.6% market share, up from Q2 2010's 2.4%). 

When it comes to smartphones, iOS and Android dominate the ecosystem with a combined Q2 2011 market share of nearly 62%-- double that of Q2 2010's 31%. 

Gartner concludes with its forecasts for 2011-- predicting mobile device sales will grow to around 12% by the year's end. 

Go Market Share: Mobile Communication Devices Q2 2011 (Gartner)