It’s hard to ignore the headlines raving about tablets and how they’re winning the hearts and minds of developers and consumers. According to recent data from industry research (IDC and eMarketer), the hype appears to be justified.

In eMarketer’s report, “iPad Sales to More than Double Next Year,” over 41 million Americans are predicted to own a tablet by 2012. This is close to double the forecast for 2011 (24 million). Many consumers are reaching for their tablets instead of their smartphones to conduct selected tasks, like emailing, browsing the web, and using social networks.

The Appcelerator IDC Mobile Developer Report (January 2011) took an in-depth look at developers and their preferences relating to tablets and the various mobile platforms. When asked which platforms they are “very interested” in developing for, the responses were as follows:

• 87% for iPad
• 74% for Android tablets (up from 62%)
• 28% for Blackberry Playbook (up from 16%)
• 16% for webOS (remained a static figure)

Also included in the research was an interesting comparison of the overall growth of developers’ interest among each mobile platform (for both smartphones and tablets). The typical front runner, Apple, was followed by the Android platform, Blackberry and Windows Phone 7 smartphones.

Yes, the data supports the “tablet takeover” theory, but many questions remain. Are tablets capable of replacing laptops? When or will the “tablet phenomenon” plateau? What kind of havoc will HTML5 wreak on the preferences of developers?