Apple’s iPad will continue to reign the swelling tablet market this year even though it already has several competitors from various computer and mobile-device companies, according to a report released by research firm Gartner.

Gartner said iPad, which is synonymous to the term “tablet,” sets the standards for what the device really is, thus, leaving a small room for alternatives.

The firm expects 70 million tablets to be sold within this year and about 108 million in 2012. The expected number is way beyond the 17.6 million tablet sales in 2011.

Google trails behind Apple in the second position. The firm said Google’s Android operating system is still insufficient to match up with Apple.

However, Gartner said Google’s shares will rise to 39 percent in 2015 from 20 percent this year while Apple’s shares will gradually drop to 47 percent from 69 percent.

Research in Motion’s Playbook tablet, which uses the new QNX platform, gets the third spot in the market this year with a 5.6 percent market shares, which Gartner believes will rise to 10 percent in 2015.

The firm said time and remarkable effort is required for RIM to obtain more customers and developers that will deliver a more innovative group of services and applications around QNX. Carolina Milanesi, Gartner analyst said this method will make a feasible alternative to Android or Apple.

Milanesi said organizations that will be interested in RIM’s new QNX-run tablet will consist of those who have RIM’s infrastructurre or those who have strict security requirements.

Researchers found that among 4.6 million adults living in Switzerland, heart attacks are more common among people who are exposed to too much aircraft noise. People living under flight routes are the most predisposed.

According to Matthias Egger, researcher from the University of Bern, the case was much more evident among people who were exposed to increased levels of noise, but it was dependent on for how long those people were exposed to such noise.

Although this is not the first time that noise pollution was linked to undesirable health effects, the study helped determine that the noise is the major cause of the cardiovascular risks and not just other factors that might affect the people such as air pollution.

The researchers identified 15,532 heart attack deaths between late 2000 and end of 2005 among 4.6 million residents. Using this information from the ongoing Swiss mortality study, as well as the government records and environmental data, Egger and his colleagues identified that both the duration and level of aircraft noise affect the people most.

In their written report in journal Epidemiology, the researchers said that people who are exposed at a minimum of 60 decibels of noise at a daily rate are at 30 percent greater risk to die from heart attack than those who are exposed to less than 45 decibels.

On the other hand, people exposed to increased levels of decibels for at least 15 years and more puts up their risk to more than 50 percent.

Egger said that noise does possibly have effects on health and their group recommends further measures to protect the people from such aircraft noise such as sound barriers and better home insulation.