The release of Apple’s new iPad sets the stage for what may be the entry of a dozen or more new tablets into the marketplace over the next few months as consumers, businesses and federal agencies embrace the technology, predicts Jack Gold, president of J.Gold Associates, a technology analyst firm.

The newest version of the iPad is an “incremental improvement” over the previous iPad – it has a better processor and includes both a front-facing and rear-facing camera to allow the user to video conference and take photos with the device, Gold said.

“It clearly is going to be, I think, a hot seller,” he said.

Tablets will replace about one in three desktop computers in 2011, according to a December 2010 report by Goldman Sachs.

Gold does not believe the replacement rate will be that high, but also said, “I think tablets will certainly have a profound effect on businesses and government agencies as well.”

The new iPad also boasts being 30 percent thinner than before. Size is one of the advantages of using the iPad in the workplace because of its “non-invasive” nature in meetings, said Eric Openshaw, vice chairman and U.S. technology leader at Deloitte, in a February interview with the DorobekINSIDER.

Research by Deloitte estimates that 25 percent of tablets sold in 2011 will be bought by businesses.

Apple is focused more on the “consumer world,” Gold said. But that doesn’t mean iPads won’t start showing up in the federal workplace. As the technology purchased by feds for personal use outpaces the technology available on the job, Federal Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra has said that he envisions greater employee-owned mobile devices in the federal workplace of the future. Feds would possibly receive a subsidy of something around $2,000 to purchase their own devices, be it an iPad or whatever comes next.

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