Contractors may consider investing in Apple tablets in the coming year after one expert has said that the brand's reputation for quality will see it retain its place in the market, beating competition from cheaper alternatives.

Paul Allen, editor of Computeractive said: "The computer industry has always been fairly competitive during the recession, and there have been some decent pricing cuts. People are still prepared to spend money on technology if they get a benefit out of it."

Recent figures released by Gartner shows that the number of PCs shipped in 2010 reached a peak of 350.9 million, which is a significant 13.8 per cent increase on the previous year's figure.

Mikako Kitagawa, Gartner's principal analyst said that these results indicate that the PC market has recovered from the recession as it has returned to double digit growth from low single-digit growth in 2009.