The iPad still dominates the tablet market, but Amazon's Kindle Fire is holding on to the gains it made over the holiday season, according to new stats from mobile ad network Chitika Insights.

The tablet market grew 75 per cent during the fourth quarter, compared to the same time period in 2011, highlighting the trend of mobile and tablet devices driving personal computing. NPD DisplaySearch reached a similar conclusion last month, estimating that global tablet shipments will hit 240 million units this year — a 64 per cent year-over-year increase.

Tablet competition, however, still remains fairly one-sided. Based on data collected by Chitika between 19 and 25 January, the mobile ad firm pointed to an unsurprising lead for the iPad, which had 81 per cent of the tablet market last month, leaving a giant gap between Apple and it's Android-based contenders.

The Amazon Kindle Fire, however, landed almost 8 per cent of the market — a 3 per cent boost from its late-December standing. Google Nexus, Samsung Galaxy, and B&N Nook tablets also saw smaller gains last month, with all three now contributing a combined 6.7 per cent of US tablet Web traffic, Chitika said.

"It appears that Christmas was the point at which tablet usage shares dramatically shifted," the company said in a news release, pointing to early January statistics that reported a dip in iPad usage, while Android devices managed to gain a few percentage points.

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