With schools embracing the iPad and other tablets as helpful teaching devices and other recent trends, research firm Forrester has upped its U.S. consumer tablet forecast.

The Boston-based technology researcher says the tablet market will grow rapidly, reaching 10.3 million U.S. consumers in 2010 and 82 million in 2015, an update from its previous forecast in June 2010.

According to a report from Forrester analyst Sarah Rotman Epps, Forrester was too conservative in its forecast six months ago.

“When Apple’s iPad first debuted, we saw the device as a game-changer but were too conservative with our forecast. Since then, we’ve fielded additional consumer surveys and a SMB and enterprise survey, conducted additional supply-side research, and seen more sales numbers from Apple,” Rotman Epps blogged.

In June 2010, Forrester projected that U.S. consumers would buy 3.5 million tablets in 2010 and 8.4 million in 2011, and that 59 million U.S. consumers would own a tablet by 2015.

“We’ve had briefings from many companies that will release new tablets at CES. All of these inputs have led us to revise our US consumer tablet forecast for 2010 upward to 10.3 million units, and we expect sales to more than double in 2011 to 24.1 million units. Of those sales, the lion's share will be iPads, and despite many would-be competitors that will be released at CES, we see Apple commanding the vast majority of the tablet market through 2012,” she continued.

But the illustrious iPad is not the only player, Rotman Epps adds, given that a market this big has room for competition.

“As for Android tablets, Research In Motion’s BlackBerry PlayBook, Microsoft's Windows-based tablets, and tablets that run on HP's and Nokia's platforms, they'll take a backseat to Apple, but in a market this big, there's room for more than one player,” she said.