According to a recent study conducted by Forrester, nearly 27 million people – or 14 percent US online customers – will likely go in for a tablet device in 2011; another indication that the Apple iPad and the several other forthcoming tablets will dominate the market in the near future.

As per the Thursday-released Forrester report, the findings of the recent study are “encouraging for Apple’s would-be tablet competitors: There’s interest in the category that goes beyond the iPad.”

Presently, however, the choice is pretty limited in the tablet device arena – with the Apple iPad merrily ruling the roost; and Dell having recently released its Streak tablet. However, the competition is all set to heat up, with the forthcoming offerings reportedly being Hewlett-Packard’s WebOS-based tablet; LG’s Android-based device; and Google and HTC’s Chrome OS-based tablet!

The Forrester report also included a piece of advice for the manufacturers readying their respective tablet devices – it said that the companies looking to compete against the market-leading iPad should bear in mind that tablet users “consume media like it’s air.”

Further noting that tablet buyers “really, really care about media,” the Forrester report lauded Apple for being smart enough to focus on media consumption. The report elaborated users of tablet devices “spend more hours consuming all types of media than all US online consumers do, with the exception of offline TV.”