MediaTek is relocating its tablet solution unit from its wireless communications group to the home entertainment group, meaning that the Taiwan-based top IC design house is looking to put more of its hardware and software resources into developing chips for tablet applications, according to industry sources.
The move echoes company president Hseih Ching-chiang's statement that MediaTek aims to roll out new chips for tablet applications on a quarterly basis in the next few years.
The emphasis on the development of chips for tablets indicates that MediaTek believes that tablets will become the next-generation killer application and that the global tablet market is likely to continue to grow robustly in the coming years, commented the sources.
Meanwhile, MediaTek has adopted a strategy to push sales of its tablet solutions to non-Apple branded vendors in China and Taiwan, which have been focusing on promoting mid-range tablets for the US$99-199 segment, the sources indicated.
Given the high price/performance ratio and reliability of MediaTek's chipset solutions, more and more entry-level tablet vendors in China are likely to queue up for table solutions from MediaTek, said the sources.
MediaTek is expected to ship a total of 20 million chipsets for tablets in 2013, accounting for 15% of the global non-iPad tablet market, estimated the sources.
Article translated by Steve Shen
