Shipments of tablet-use application processors (AP) in China edged down 2.7% sequentially in the first quarter of 2014, affected by seasonality, according to preliminary findings by Digitimes Research. However, the first-quarter shipments still represent a 37.6% on-year growth.
Local chipmaker Rockchip Electronics remained the top vendor in the segment in the first quarter but its shipments dipped by 4.8% sequentially. But rival company Allwinner Technology saw its shipments increase, buoyed by an improvement in product portfolio and an optimization of the software of its dual-core CPUs, estimated Digitimes Research.
MediaTek saw its tablet AP shipments to China slip 7.1% sequentially in the first quarter of 2014 after shipments reaching a peak in the previous quarter. Additionally, MediaTek's launch of a new AP without a baseband processor did little to lift its first-quarter shipments.
The combined share of the top-3 tablet AP vendors slipped 0.8pp to 76.5% in the first quarter of 2014 as compared to the previous quarter. Other vendors including HiSilicon Technologies, Nvidia and Intel doubled their shipments, while Amologic switched its focus to network STB devices.
