Strategy Analytics, an analyst group who I trust and cite often, has published a new report on tablet shipments during the first quarter of 2013. They say that compared to Apple’s 19.5 million iPad shipments, Android tablets hit an astonishing 17.6 million.

They want to highlight the fact that they’re only emphasizing branded and white box tablet. What does that mean? They’re not counting the millions of tablets that are built in China and sold by a no name brand for next to nothing. The kind of stuff you see being peddled on street corners and such.

The tablet market as a whole managed to pump out a hair over 40 million units. That compares nicely to less than 19 million in 2012. Considering that the tablet market is such an incredibly new consumer category, you can expect to similar levels of growth for the next few years.

Ironically, somewhat obviously, Microsoft is struggling. The report says just 3 million Windows tablets shipped during the first three months of the year. That’s quite … terrible.