Android tablets have been around for some time now, but there still aren’t nearly enough game titles that the OS can run when compared to other gaming environments.

These games can be played both on tablets operating on this OS as well on Android powered smartphones. Some games were initially only available for the iPad, but as the diversity of Android tablets increase, new titles are migrating towards these devices as well.

A predicted surge in sales of smaller, lower-cost tablets will bump up the number of shipments this year, according to a new report from IDC.

The research firm now expects global tablet shipments to rise to 190.9 million in 2012, up from its prior forecast of 172.4 million. IDC also sees an average rise in shipments of 11 percent from now through 2016, leading to more than 350 million tablets shipped by the end of 2017.

In a matter of two years, the tablet has developed from a minor, niche product into one of the world's fastest growing media platforms. A mere blip on technological consciousness before 2010, it took less than two years for tablets to overtake global netbook PC sales. Millions of consumers are adopting this new technology as a light, portable entertainment and media device, while enterprises are using them to replace notebook PCs, access files and cloud storage remotely, and substitute paper filing systems.