Non-Apple Tablets Forecast to Overtake iPad in 2012

In comparison, sales of Apple iPads will grow by 55 percent, Digitimes reports.

Shipments of Android-based tablets are expected to jump from 19 to 20 million units in 2011 to 44 to 45 million units in 2012, Digitimes claims, largely due to the expected late 2011 launch of Ice Cream Sandwich, the next tablet-focused version of Android.

The momentum of the tablet market could also be swayed by the launch of new processors from nVidia, Qualcomm and Texas Instruments. In particular, nVidia's forthcoming Tegra 3 chip, which could launch in September or October, is reckoned to have five times the 3D graphic processing capability of its predecessor.

The claims come on the back of a Digitimes research report released last week that estimated Apple would end 2011 with a 61 percent share of the tablet market.

The earlier report also puts iPad sales for 2011 as 40 million, well in excess of the figures quoted in the more recent report.