Surveys reveal that a substantial chunk of U.S. customers plan to buy a tablet in the next year, and it's not necessarily going to be an iPad.

Fourteen percent, or 27 million U.S. online consumers, intend to buy some kind of tablet in the next 12 months, says a Forrester research report published Thursday (chart below). Customers interested in purchasing a tablet aren't primarily Apple customers, and they're well aware of the crop of upcoming tablets from competitors such as Google and Hewlett-Packard.

Additionally, a similar study by the Magazine Publishers of America found that nearly 60 percent of U.S. consumers expect to purchase an e-reader or tablet within the next three years.

"Even though the iPad is the only widely available tablet PC on the market today, tablets have entered consumer consciousness in a very short time frame," said Sarah Rotman Epps, a consumer product analyst at Forrester. "There’s interest in the category that goes beyond the iPad."

Apple's four-month-old iPad is turning in strong sales with 3.27 million units sold to date — just a hair short of Macs, which sold 3.47 million units in the same quarter. That's a huge accomplishment for a device less than a year old, and it delivered a shot of adrenaline to the mostly moribund tablet market. For years, scores of tablets have come and gone from manufacturers such as HP, Acer and even Apple, whose first tablet offering was the Newton. The Newton, like most other tablet devices during its time, was criticized for poor handwriting recognition and priceyness ($700 to $1,000), and was retired by 1998. In the meantime, dozens of PC manufacturers have shipped Windows-based Tablet PCs, but the category never took off outside of niche markets and enthusiasts.

Even though most of the tablet hype today surrounds the iPad, many respondents to Forrester's survey said they were aware of other offerings on the horizon, such as the unreleased HP Slate, as well as obscure tablets like the Archos and JooJoo. The general widespread interest in the tablet category gives hope to manufacturers preparing to compete with Apple, Forrester said.

Forrester's study also found that today's customers tend to live with many connected devices. Sixty-nine percent of iPad buyers and 57 percent of tablet buyers also own a latest-generation game console (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 or Nintendo Wii) compared with 37 percent of all U.S. online consumers.

Notably, iPad fans aren't necessarily Apple worshippers (chart below): More iPad customers own HP computers than Macs. Thirty-nine percent of respondents who said they own or intend to buy an iPad said they own an HP computer, for example. IPad owners are also four times more likely to own a connected TV (9 percent versus 2 percent of non-iPad-owning U.S. online customers).

Apple has a head start on the new tablet market with its iPad, but competitors are just beginning to roll in. Dell recently introduced its 5-inch Streak tablet, which is getting some positive reception. And most recently, the tech sphere has been buzzing with rumors of a Google-powered tablet working on the Verizon network, possibly landing as soon as the holiday season (though we're skeptical).

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