Microsoft's Surface RT tablet may see sales of only 60% of the company's forecast by the end of 2012 and the device is also expected to have difficulty achieving a good performance during the year-end holidays, according to sources from upstream component suppliers.

The sources pointed out that Surface RT, as well as Asustek Computer's Windows RT-based tablets, do not have an advantage in terms of a price/performance ratio, while Windows RT's lack of supporting software from the previous Windows system and can only use software downloaded from the Windows Store has greatly reduced the attraction to consumers.

The sources believe that notebook vendors' Windows 8-based tablets will benefit from the Surface RT's weaker-than-expected sales as their products will face one less competitor in the Windows-based tablet market.