Late yesterday a new analytical report surfaced stating that Apple has kept their comfortable lead in the tablet market by holding on to 31.4% of the market share by shipping 23.6 million iPads in the first half of 2015.

Although Samsung was shown to be in second place with shipments of 16.7 million units translating to 22.2% market share, the fact is that stats for Samsung tablets are truly deceitful. We've all seen the giveaway offers of buy a losing S5 Galaxy phone and get a tablet free offered by AT&T and others around the globe. This gimmick has been going on since at least 2013. So on dead-shipment numbers on paper alone it looks like they're competitive but the give-aways prove the numbers are not proving sales, let alone profits. So Apple's leadership in tablets still reigns supreme.

In respect to Apple, the new TrendForce report further noted that "Apple's upcoming iPad Mini 3 does not offer notable feature upgrades except for having a thinner body. Therefore, it is unlikely to generate significant purchase demand when it hits the market this third quarter."

The report added that "Apple will also launch the 12.9-inch iPad Pro this fourth quarter, and while this product has garnered a lot of attention by introducing a new size category in the iPad series, its actual contribution to this year's shipments will be limited due to late arrival. With a detachable keyboard and a stylus, iPad Pro will be used as a touchstone in Apple's efforts to develop business applications for iPad products."

We first reported on the iPad Pro rumor back in 2013 which just happened to support Apple's 2013 patent application detailing such a product. Several other related patents have surfaced since including this one which illustrates Apple having designed a keyboard/stylus-pad accessory for a future iPad. Apple has also filed more than a dozen patents relating to a future stylus or smart pen for a higher-end iPad.

So will the iPad Pro finally arrive this fall as so many analysts have banked on? While only time will tell, such a professional model would certainly be welcomed by those in business and education markets. It would also fuel the Apple-IBM MobileFirst enterprise centric collaboration to the next level. And lastly, it would directly challenge Microsoft's efforts to edge back into the enterprise market with their Surface tablet which TrendForce notes came in fifth spot giving Microsoft 2% of the global tablet market in the first half of 2015.

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