IC demand for tablet PCs has been weak prompting more chip suppliers to phase out their tablet-IC businesses, according to sources at Taiwan-based IC design houses.
The rising popularity of large-size smartphones has had an adverse impact on the tablet market, said the sources. Tablet demand worldwide will likely decline 10-20% in 2016, the sources indicated.
Shipments of tablets running Android OS might be less than 160 million units in 2015, and will fall further to 120-130 million in 2016, the sources predicted.
More international vendors have moved to leave the tablet-IC market because of low prices which will yield them low profits, the sources observed. In addition to weak demand, price competition among tablet chip providers remains intense, the sources said.
On the other hand, MediaTek has seen its shipments for tablets continue to grow, the sources noted. The Taiwan-based company aims to ship 45 million tablet chips in 2015.
