White-box vendors shipped 22.3 million tablets globally in the second quarter of 2014, increasing 9.3% sequentially, according to Digitimes Research.
Of the shipments, Wi-Fi only models accounted for 56.4% and Wi-Fi plus voice communications models 43.6%, Digitimes Research indicated. In terms of screen size, 7-inch models accounted for 69.4% of the shipments and 7.85/7.9-inch ones 20.8%.
In view of growing demand for Wi-Fi tablets in mature markets and for inexpensive Wi-Fi+voice models in Southeast Asia and Eastern Europe, white-box tablet shipments will increase to 27.2 million units in the third quarter of 2014 and 27.8 million units in the fourth. However, profitability for white-box tablets is likely to shrink due to competition from large-size smartphones with high performance-price ratios and convertible tablets.
This article is an excerpt from a Digitimes Research Quarterly Data Report (Global tablet market – 2Q 2014). Visit our latest Data reports.