IDC Australia's quarterly media tablet and e-reader tracker found that the second quarter of this year was a bumper time for tablet sales, with more than 420,000 units shipped to the region.

Market analyst for IDC, Yee-Kuan Lau, said there were a number of factors behind the increase in sales, including new users.

"The market expansion was a combined effort of early adopters refreshing devices purchased last year and new users who were interested in a media tablet as a complementary device, with some waiting for more non-Apple variety," Lau said.

"The supply-side push from the new Android players in the market, particularly amongst the traditional PC hardware vendors, has caused a large rollout of stock into national retailers to strengthen their brand presence.

"However, at this stage, most vendors were testing the initial market response by introducing WiFi-only models."