51 percent of managers with iPads say they ‘always’ use the device at work, and another 40 percent sometimes do, accoridng to an IDG Connect survey, underlining the increasing popularity of iPads in the office environment.

In particular, iPads are doing particularly well as a business tool in the pharmaceutical and financial services industries, where sales representatives use the tablets to show product information to clients.

Even as other tablets play catch-up in the consumer market, the iPad faces little competition among corporations such as financial services and pharmaceutical firms. Apple's iPhone, meanwhile, is the top-selling smartphone, forcing businesses to accommodate workers who use it. That has helped set the stage for Apple's Mac computer to make its own inroads in the corporate world.

The real threat to the corporate-technology industry is if Apple decides to pursue the market more aggressively, said Frank Gillett, an analyst at Forrester Research Inc. Apple can take advantage of its popular iTunes and App Store platforms to distribute software to companies in a user-friendly way, he said. That in turn would help promote the company's hardware products.