There has been a surge in demand for tablet-use SoC solutions in the China market thus far in 2012, benefiting local IC design companies such as Allwinner Technology, Rockchip Technology and Amlogic, according to Digitimes Research. The tablet-IC market in China is dominated by local SoC developers, which mainly adopt the ARM architecture enabling a low-cost and easy-to-design platform.

Shipments of China makers' branded and white-box tablets destined for the local market are forecast to reach about 15 million units in 2012, while those destined for overseas will climb to as high as 44.15 million, Digitimes Research said. In total, shipments of China makers' branded and white-box tablets are estimated at nearly 60 million units in 2012, Digitimes Research indicated.

China's white-box tablet companies will account for 81% of the overall units shipped in 2012, Digitimes Research said. Shipments of China's brand-name tablet companies are set to reach only about five million units in 2012, Digitimes Research added.

Europe, the Middle East, Southeast Asia and South America are the key markets which China-based tablet exporters will target in 2012, Digitimes Research noted. The exporters, mainly white-box makers, have their products sold through local distributors and telecom carriers in the target markets.

Allwinner will unseat Rockchip as the top developer of tablet SoCs in 2012. Allwinner is forecast to ship a total of 22 million chips in 2012, while Rockchip's shipments will total 12.5 million units, Digitimes Research said. Amlogic will rank third with shipments of 5.5 million units, followed by Taiwan-based VIA Technologies with 4.5 million units, according to Digitimes Research.

Source: Digitimes Research, November 2012