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Lest we forget, Apple still has some competition. Though IDC confirmed big shipment numbers for Apple, the market researcher said Amazon made a good showing too.

Global tablet shipments into "sales channels" rose by 56 percent on a sequential basis in the fourth calendar quarter of 2011 to 28.2 million units, according to IDC.

That represents a whopping 155 percent increase from the fourth quarter of 2010.

IDC tablet shipment highlights:

In 2011, tablet shipments reached 68.7 million.

In 2012, shipments will be 106.1 million, up from 87.7 million in previous forecast.

Apple shipped 15.4 million iPads in Q4*, garnering 55 percent of the global market.

Amazon shipped 4.7 million Kindle Fire tablets in Q4, grabbing 16.8 percent.
Third-place Samsung grew its share to 5.8 percent in Q4.

Barnes & Noble saw its Nook tablet share slip to 3.5 percent.

*Fourth calendar quarter 2011.

Amazon shipped 4.7 million Kindle Fires (see chart) into the market in the fourth quarter, making an "impressive" tablet debut, IDC said.

But Apple maintained a big lead, shipping 15.4 million units in the quarter, up from 11.1 million units in the third quarter.

The Kindle Fire--which runs a custom version of Google's Android operating system--grew its share of the Android market to 44.6 percent in the fourth quarter from 32.3 percent in the third quarter. As a result, Apple's iOS slipped from 61.6 percent market share to 54.7 percent of the total tablet market.

Based upon expectations for a spike in demand in 2012, IDC upped its 2012 forecast to 106.1 million units, up from its previous forecast of 87.7 million units.

source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13924_3-57396855-64/ipad-and-kindle-fire-both-strong-in-recent-quarter-says-idc/