Tablet computers set to outsell laptops

Tablet computers, which are set to flood the consumer market this year, will outsell laptops in the US by 2015, according to a new report.

Forrester Research said its previous forecasts had been too conservative following the launch of Apple's iPad last year, and now believes 82 million Americans will be using tablet devices in four years' time.

As the industry prepares for the first day of the CES trade show in Las Vegas today, analysts predict that more than 50 new tablet devices could be launched at the event. The Forrester analyst Sarah Rotman Epps said there would still be more laptop users in 2015, but annual tablet sales would be stronger in the next four years. She added tablets' prices would fall, following the trend of e-readers, where the price of some models has fallen by two-thirds since 2007.