The iPad 2 made its debut earlier this month, and now it’s officially available in stores – Apple’s online store, at least. Hitting retail stores in just a few hours at 5 p.m. PT, the tablet ranges from the $499 for the 16 GB,Wi-Fi-only version to $829 for the iPad 2 with 64 GB and 3G+Wi-Fi support.

The iPad 2 is getting quite a bit of attention, and according to Forrester this buzz is about to translate into some serious sales figures for Apple and its ecosystem. According to The Inquirer, the research firm expects Apple will gain an 80 percent share of the tablet market this year. This would be pretty momentous feat considering Android currently has a 22 percent market share, but senior analyst Sarah Rotman sticks behind her firm’s forecast.

“The humans working in the Apple Store will have a huge impact teaching consumers about the iPad and how to use it.” Humans working in a store? It seems Apple has tapped into an unknown resource, the village elders must be informed at once.”

Rotman continued to note that the tablet industry is a “market that’s ripe for disruption”, suggesting Amazon should launch its own tablet. That doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense so far, yet according to Forrester, more people want to buy tablet from Amazon than from Motorola. After all, Motorola’s Xoom is still a work in progress, despite the fact it offers certain hardware features technically superior to the iPad 2. Nonetheless, the electronics giant did announce one very significant (and welcomed) link to its $799 Xoom chain today, which gives its tablet a tremendous edge over the iPad 2.

PCWorld reports Motorola tweeted its rolling out Flash support starting tonight. This update comes coincidently of course, the same day Apple is rolling out the iPad 2 which doesn’t support Flash, at least when you don’t count in VMware View. Moreover, the Xoom doesn’t yet feature 4G support and SD card expansion – two of the device’s most prominent benefits over the almighty iPad 2.

The tablet war rages on, and new iPad 2 competitors seem to be popping up from everywhere. Toshiba announced it will launch an upcoming Honeycomb tablet of its own, and Sprint will reportedly reveal the new Evo View tablet in roughly 10 day- a variant of the HTC Flyer previewed last month.