There are a lot of tablets available these days and it’s quite hard to choose from the buffet.  But it looks like no matter how many Android tablets pop up in the market, consumers are still looking at Apple Inc.’s iPad as the number one choice.

Yesterday SiliconANGLE’s report featured InMobi’s latest findings that iOS’ lead over Android has increased in recent weeks, with iOS at 35% and Android now at 31% compared to November 2011’s data where in iOS was at 28.2% and Android was at 34.5%.

That report is further supported by Velti’s latest report, a provider of mobile marketing and advertising technology for brands, advertising agencies, mobile operators, and media groups, 2011 Year In Review: The Year Of the Tablet, where it was stated that the iPad had 12x the impression volume of its nearest competitor, the Samsung Galaxy Tab.  By early 2012, it expanded the lead to 15x.

There are four tablets that made an impression in the market: the iPad, the Kindle Fire, the Samsfung Galaxy Tab, and the Asus EEE Pad Transformer Prime.  Of the four, the iPad comprises 87% of the market, Kindle Fire 6%, Galaxy Tab 5%, and the Transformer Prime at 1%.  And the dominance of the iPad will not wane soon as it is expected that by 2013, there will be more iPad users since the new iPad has just been released.

Can the iPad be stopped?

So there seems to be no stopping the reign of the iPad right?  Not necessarily.  We can’t deny the fact that more people are using and buying tablets these days, some even replace their laptops/netbooks with tablets.  And similarly to the smartphone market, Android tablets are expected to takeover by 2015 by sheer volume of units shipped.

According to a recent report from the IDC, Apple’s iPad market share is on the decline.  Apple shipped 15.4 million iPads in the fourth quarter of 2011, up from 11.1 million in the third quarter. The company had 54.7 percent of the worldwide tablet market in Q4, down from 61.5 percent in Q3.

The same tablets that are influential in today’s Android market will continue to push the platform’s accessibility and overall success.  Android’s rise comes at the expense of Apple, with the Kindle Fire taking second place with 16.8 percent of the global market.  The result is an increase in market share, up from 32.3 percent in the third quarter of 2011, to 44.6 percent in the fourth.

Samsung’s shares grew only slightly, from 5.5 percent to 5.8 percent in Q4, while the Barnes & Noble Nook actually decreased its market share from 4.5 percent to 3.5 percent, despite increasing shipments.

But even with Android encroaching on worldwide market share, Apple’s ecosystem is still expected to generate more revenue through 2016 and beyond.