Technology research firm IDC has just released its Top 10 predictions for 2010, and Apple is going to make a big splash in the next year or two, they say.

The most obvious of the predictions is that 2010 will be the year of the “iPad” (or whatever Apple winds up calling their fabled tablet computer). One of IDC’s predictions for 2009 was that Apple would not unveil such a device this year, and now they’re placing bets that next year will finally be the one.

IDC predicts the iPad will be more of a super-sized iPod touch than a downsized Macintosh, according to The New York Times, and specifically mention movie-watching, web surfing, online gaming and reading books, magazines and newspapers as its tricks of the trade, unlike Amazon’s single-function Kindle. IDC chief analyst Frank Gens says Apple’s “jack of all trades” device “could deliver a real kick in Kindle’s butt.”

According to CNN Money, IDC specifically mentions a “year-end 2010” release for the iPad, and they are keeping mostly mum on how an the tablet device will get a 3G connection, further fueling existing rumors that Apple might part ways (at least exclusively) with AT&T and cook up something with Verizon instead.

Also in IDC’s crystal ball is a big push among developers to continue shifting focus to mobile devices. They predict 300,000 iPhone applications in the App Store by the end of 2010, with many of the new apps coming from well-known Global 2000 businesses and consumer brands. There are now over 100,000 iPhone apps in the App Store, up from 10,000 only a year ago — an annual growth rate of 900%.

“The market follows the applications,” Gens explains. “That’s a message for the software industry, particularly for the PC industry.”

Finally, IDC is betting big on the cloud platforms, calling them “the strategic battleground of the next 20 years in computing,” according to The New York Times. They also predict that more than 1 billion mobile devices will access the Internet in 2010, gaining rapidly on the existing base of 1.3 billion PCs already doing so.