The world tablet market is gaining momentum at an unbelievable pace, mostly due to the high demand for Apple's iPad.

In last year's final quarter, the media tablet market shot up by 45.1 pc. The shipments touched 4.8 million units all over the world, and 87.4 pc of that turned out to be Apple's iPad.

According to market researcher IDC in a report that came out on 18th January, Apple has most definitively headed the global media tablet market in shipments and established the level for innovating technology last year, with almost 4.2 million units being shipped in the third quarter last year, along with an 87.4% share all over the world. The report was on worldwide media tablet as well as the e-reader market.

Meanwhile, besides iPads, even e-readers shot up in terms of popularity, and both the devices were snapped up by the consumers in 2010.

In last year's final quarter, even the worldwide e-reader shipments jumped up to 2.7 million units, a 40 pc rise from the previous quarter.

Meanwhile, the USA made up for nearly three fourths of the global e-reader market.