Nokia remained tight-lipped on Tuesday over speculation that it plans to launch a tablet running on Windows 8 in time for Christmas.

Component supplier sources cited by Taiwan's DigiTimes on Monday alleged that the Finnish handset maker is prepping a 10-inch tablet powered by a dual-core Qualcomm processor for "the fourth quarter of 2012 at the earliest".

The report claimed Nokia will outsource production to Taipei-based Compal Electronics, with the first batch to comprise more than 200,000 units.

"We do not comment on rumours or market speculation," was the response given by a Nokia spokesperson.

If indeed Nokia does plan to begin developing tablets, much like the smartphone market it will be playing catch-up to Apple and various Android players.

Following the unveiling of a new iPad and a price cut for the iPad 2 last week, IDC predicted on Tuesday that Apple will account for 41.3% of the consumer tablet market in 2012. Total industry unit shipments are forecast to top 145 million, up from 96 million last year.

If the DigiTimes report is accurate, an initial production run of 200,000 Nokia tablets would be unlikely to provide any meaningful short-term boost to the company's fortunes in the tablet market.

However, competition from Google and Microsoft is expected to grow, eroding Apple's market share to 36.5% by 2016, according to IDC, putting it in second place behind Android with 43.3%.

"As the sole vendor shipping iOS products, Apple will remain dominant in terms of worldwide vendor unit shipments," said Tom Mainelli, research director, mobile connected devices, at IDC. "However, the sheer number of vendors shipping low-priced, Android-based tablets means that Google's OS will overtake Apple's in terms of worldwide market share by 2015."