The long-delayed Nexus 10 2 release date could be happening real soon as Google is seemingly buoyed by fresh research data that suggests Android has dislodged the iPad Air and iPad Mini tandem as king of tablets in 2013.

Research firm Gartner reported this week that Android-powered tablets finally took over from Apple's iPad last year, clocking nearly 121 million units in total sales by the end of December 2013. The numbers represent 61.9 per cent of total tablet market share, which a huge leap from the 45.8 per cent of market pie that the mobile platform had posted in 2012.

On the other hand, the iOS slates from Apple sold more than 70 million units in the whole of 2013, improving from the previous year's 61.4 million of total iPad sales. However, the whole iPad movement last year also saw Apple losing its grip of the mobile device segment that it dominated since the first iPad was introduced in 2010.

CNET has reported that from 52.8 per cent, iPad's global market share was whittled down to 36 per cent. Tablet shoppers that were looking for great buys - solid pricing with decent or even high-end specs - significantly contributed to Android's incredible climb, Gartner said on its report.

"In 2013, tablets became a mainstream phenomenon, with a vast choice of Android-based tablets being within the budget of mainstream consumers while still offering adequate specifications," the international research firm was reported by CNET as saying.

While Apple maintained its post as the top tablet producer in the world and the best-selling at that, the Gartner report also indicated that the tech giant's chief rival, Samsung, is now breathing hard on the former's neck.

From selling merely 8.5 million units in 2012, Samsung cleared 37.4 million Galaxy Notes and Tabs by the end of 2013, increasing its presence by about 400 per cent.

Now the whole Gartner report, according to keen Android watchers, tells two things that Google should seriously consider - that Apple's iPad is after all beatable and the formula to catapult Android tabs higher from the iPad Air and iPad Mini is already in existence.

As Gartner noted, tablet buyers got wiser last year by opting to get slates that are cheaper and equally capable or even better than the iPad. Such requirement was met by Android tablet makers.

But more so, the very model that lured away hordes of slates users from Apple is the core description of Google's Nexus device line up - high-end specifications and components inside with accessible pricing.

With the report, Google could be prompted to finally out the second Nexus 10 edition, which has been in limbo since late last year. And since Samsung has again emerged as the best candidate to challenge Apple's tablet rule, the South Korean tech titan appears in best position to manufacture and globally distribute the Nexus 10 2.

Add to that that Samsung is the same brand that was printed in the first Nexus 10 so Google's next full-sized vanilla Android slate should be in good hands with the mobile device manufacturer.

So far, rumours surrounding the Nexus 10 2 release date paint the gizmo as a mighty and pure Android machine with the latest 8-core Snapdragon processing chip plus the attending killer features, mostly thanks to the latest Google mobile OS build, which could be Android 4.5 or Lollipop.