Intel is gearing up to throw its hat in the tablet ring, the New York Times reported.

A new division of Intel called the netbook and tablet group will be headed by Douglas L. Davis, who currently runs the company's embedded communications group.

"Netbook shipments will be heading north of 100 million and we'll all soon find out what kind of market potential there is for tablets and these increasingly popular hybrid designs," Intel spokesman Bill Kircos told the Times. "It makes sense for us to sharpen our focus on these friends of the PC, and Doug's experience running a similar and very successful embedded division makes him the right guy to lead the group."

Kircos confirmed the chipmaker's new move, although Intel has made no formal announcement, the Times said.

According to a Gartner report, tablet sales should reach 19.5 million this year, eclipsing products like e-readers, gaming devices, and high-end smartphones.

Since its April launch, Apple's iPad has been the driving force in the tablet market with 4.19 million units sold in the third quarter. However, sales might not reach the six million mark that was projected for the current quarter.

But Gartner said there's room for growth. It has predicted that tablet sales will hit 54.8 million by the end of 2011, and by 2014 that number will have almost quadrupled, reaching about 208 million.

2010 has been a big year for the tablet computer, with many companies besides Apple debuting these types of devices. This year brought Samsung's Galaxy Tab, which has already sold a million units. Last month, the Dell Inspiron duo went on sale, and this week Google showed off the Motorola Honeycomb tablet.