For Windows 8 tablets, a weak forecast

From CNET News.com: Expect to see a lot of tablets milling about next year. Just don't expect to find Windows 8 on a lot of them.

Market researcher NPD DisplaySearch has upped its tablet forecast for 2013 to more than 180 million units, in a report released Thursday. That forecast, however, shows Windows 8 tablets having only a small impact through 2014.

DisplaySearch had previously pegged next year's tablet market at 168.9 million but now has revised that figure to 184.2 million.

And by 2017, the size of the market will jump to 424.9 million units, compared to 81.6 million units in 2011.

"There's a lot of display capacity that's going to become available from major suppliers," said Richard Shim, an analyst at DisplaySearch. "The television market is in a bit of a slump and notebooks aren't growing like they have in the past. The tablet is a high-growth market right now and there is going to be a lot more investment there."

Shim continued. "The folks in Cupertino (Apple) keep talking about how tablets will exceed notebook shipments. Well, we're starting to see that as well."

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