20 Million Windows 8 Tablets May be Produced in 2013

latest operating system is expected to pop up in five to eight percent of all tablets produced this year, providing Windows 8 with another notable boost.

According to

, roughly 10 million to 20 million new tablets are likely to use Windows 8 in 2013. Many investors will point out that 20 million units would be far less than the

that

is expected to produce and sell this year. While iOS has had several years to build its customer base, however, Windows 8 is still relatively new. Microsoft may have sold

, but most of them are for laptops and desktop PCs -- not tablets. Believe it or not, it actually took Apple 28 days to sell

. Nearly 60 days passed before

, and it took Apple 80 days to reach the

. At the time, Apple had the luxury of being the only key player in town. All other available tablets were overpriced ($499 or higher), contained fewer features, fewer applications, were less responsive, and were not nearly as fun to use. This made it easy for Apple to come in and dominate the market. Even with that level of ease, it still took Apple several months to garner a few million fans. That might seem irrelevant now that the company can sell

, but that success did not come overnight. Unlike Apple, Microsoft is faced with

stiff competition. In addition to the iPad, which will continue to lead the market for many months even as its overall market share declines, Windows 8-based tablets are forced to compete against dozens of Android devices. Never mind

Nexus line or the various tablets from Samsung. They are small potatoes compared to

, whose Android-based tablets have become the biggest threat to Apple's dominance. Thus, if Windows 8 is adopted by enough manufacturers -- and is added to enough new tablet models -- to reach 10 million or 20 million units this year, it will be a solid step forward for the new OS.