A report published by Taiwanese technology news website Digitimes suggests that both Lenovo and Amazon could post what it calls "impressive tablet shipment growth" in 2012.

The leader of the pack, Apple is expected to ship almost 57 million units in 2012, almost 43 per cent more than in 2011.

Amazon is expected to surpass Samsung as the second biggest tablet maker in 2012 with shipments flirting around 15 million, while Samsung could reach around 6.8 million units, up by 48 per cent.

Altogether, Apple and Amazon would account for 76 per cent of the worldwide tablet shipments for the year, estimated at just over 95 million units.

Some players, including Apple, Sony and HTC, are set to undergo growth of up to 75 percent, while others like B&N, Motorola, Dell, RIM, HP and Acer will see their shipments reduce by 70 per cent.

Oddly enough two other tablet players, Huawei and ZTE are not on the list. As for the category "other", ZTE believes that it will probably only double in size, reaching around four million units this year.

That said we firmly believe that 2012 could be the year where alternative tablets like the MIPS-based Ainol Novo7 Elf tablet could make their mark at the lower end of the market.