DisplaySearch: Apple and ARM to dominate tablet market for years to come

Market research firm DisplaySearch published bold predictions about the tablet market. The company's new report about the tablet market predicts sales of tablets will grow 211 percent year-over-year in 2011 to 59.9 million units, and claims the market will grow exponentially to well over 300 million units per year in 2017.

DisplaySearch believes just a tiny fraction of the tablet market will adopt x86 processors, and that Apple will continue to be world's largest tablet shipper. The company's analysts predict Android and Windows 8 will gradually be able to increase their marketshare in the tablet market, but that these operating systems will remain second and third, respectively. Full details X-bit Labs, but I have a feeling that we'll look back at this data in a couple of years and wonder what they were thinking.

Shipments of tablet PCs with ARM processors are expected to grow 211% year-over-year in 2011 to 59.9 million units, while tablet PCs with x86 processors are not expected to experience strong growth until 2013, according to a report by DisplaySearch. Similarly, Windows 8, which is also associated with mobile PCs, is not expected to take significant share until 2013. Global tablet shipments are expected to reach nearly 330 million units by 2017, up from less than 60 million units in 2011.