Despite the fact that the Apple iPad has largely been promoted as a device for leisure, a number of businesses – including companies as varied as General Electric, Mercedes-Benz, Wells Fargo, and Medtronic –are putting the iPad to work in their offices.

The inclination of the businesses towards the Apple iPad, which essentially is being marketed as a device for watching films or reading magazines or browsing the Web, clearly indicates that the US workplaces will be flooded with tablets in the near future – more so as a number of business-specific tablets, from Motorola, Samsung, Research In Motion (RIM), and Hewlett-Packard (HP), are set to hit the markets.

Projecting that tens of millions of tablets would be in use in America’s workplaces by 2015, Ted Schadler – Forrester Research’s VP and principal analyst – said that the “huge growth” will mark “the fastest uptake of any device in the enterprise ever. Faster than PCs, faster than laptops and faster than smartphones.”

The forthcoming tablets, especially the ones from the BlackBerry-maker RIM as well as HP, will give notable competition to the iPad because these companies already have long-established association with corporate technology customers.

Nonetheless, Apple will try its best to retain its dominance in the tablet market, and stay ahead of rivals; with the much-rumored launch of its upgraded second-generation iPad, which may be unveiled as early as next month.