A report from ABI Research forecasts significant growth in the sub-$400 tablet market over the next five years.

The company expects this sector to account for more than 60 percent of the overall tablet market by 2016.

Growth will be driven by tablet adoption in emerging markets such as India and China, and will coincide with a reduction in the market size for higher priced tablets.

Forget about the price tag...

Cost isn't the primary factor which will prevent tablet growth in emerging markets, though.

ABI research analyst Aishwarya Singh explained that "the slower pace of digitisation of local content will be the key market inhibitor for adoption of […] media tablets."

Finally, despite 'wide aspect display media tablets' (those with nine inch displays or larger) accounting for more than 75 percent of the total tablet volume in 2011 – with iPad 2 dominating the field – ABI expects smaller tablets to be favoured in the next few years, citing portability advantages as a factor in their adoption.

[source: ABI Research]