Chip vendor Spreadtrum Communications has entered the tablet market.
The Chinese company introduced its quad-core chipset for tablets, supporting WCDMA/HSPA+, Android 4.4 (KITKAT) and a turnkey reference design to help manufacturers reduce the time and resources required to bring new tablets to market.
Spreadtrum will target Chinese tablet vendors.
Earlier, chip major Intel said it will target 40 million tablets in 2014 against 10 million it achieved in 2013. Intel is a new chip vendor in the rapidly growing tablet market. Gartner says the worldwide tablet market will grow 47 percent in 2014 with lower average selling prices attracting new users.
Qualcomm is also trying to establish in the tablet market.
Leo Li, chairman and CEO of Spreadtrum, said: “Our approach helps our customers bring low-cost devices to market that appeal to consumers who want access to tablet functionality but where affordability is a key factor in the purchase decision.”
Smaller tablets will take over from the larger tablet form factors, providing the added mobility that consumers desire at a lower cost and will compete with hybrids for consumer attention. Gartner expects worldwide device shipments for tablets to be 263.5 million units in 2014.
Spreadtrum’s SC5735 integrates a quad-core ARM Cortex-A7 CPU, supporting Android 4.4 and dual-band WCDMA/HSPA+ as well as quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE communications standards.
The solution integrates a quad or dual Mali 400 for high performance graphics, and supports up to 1080p screen resolution as well as a 5 megapixel primary camera and up to 2 megapixel secondary camera. The chipset supports connectivity functions including GPS, WiFi, Bluetooth and FM.
Spreadtrum’s solution is sampling with customers now and is expected to reach mass production next month.
