Are we about to have a battle of the tablets?

One in four US adults now owns a tablet computer, and two-thirds of those who own a tablet purchased them in the last year. These figures, despite being quite recent, don;t take into consideration the recent launches of the iPad Mini as well as the new Kindle devices (which now makes my slightly older Kindle look very out of date) and other Android devices...... let alone this month's Microsoft Surface launch
This means that the ubiquitous iPad does now have some serious competition in the tablet market and therefore this leads to an overall increase in tablet ownership.

The above diagram, provide by The Economist & Pew Research shows just how much the market has changed in one year.
http://www.economistgroup.com/leanback/lean-back-reading/pew-tablets-users/

In my opinion there's a battle coming. One that will be fought in full view of all of us (and most will get caught in the crossfire). The war over mobile commerce.... which is set to explode over the next few years.

Don't believe me?
Well Business Insider do, as they have predicted several mobile commerce trends over the next few years.

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/bii-report-why-mobile-commerce-is-set-to-explode-2012-11 

Their predictions pretty-much reflect a lot of my own thoughts:

1. Mobile commerce is getting bigger and bigger
2. Mobile payments will fuel this growth
3. Tablet growth will drive up this usage even further
4. The SoMoLo 'holy trinity' of Social Mobile & Local will be attractive to marketers (although specifically how they will take advantage of this, I'm not sure yet)

Therefore those companies who manage to take as much of the tablet now, will be in a position to commercially make the most from it in the next few years.