The supply of MediaTek's dual-core and TD-SCDMA smartphone solutions, including the MT6577 and MT6517, has become increasing tight recently due to strong demand from China-based branded and white-box handset vendors, according to industry sources.

In particular, China-based white-box smartphone vendors have accelerated their launches of new models with higher hardware specifications, since sales of white-box smartphones were better than those models rolled out by brand vendors during the October 1 holidays, the sources revealed.

Demand for MediaTek's dual-core MT6517 solutions, which support HSPA+ standards, may gain a boost amid market reports indicating that China Unicom plans to upgrade its technology to HSPA+ in 2013, therefore pushing potential smartphone vendors to look for needed chipset solutions from MediaTek, the sources noted.

Buoyed by strong demand, MediaTek may see its revenues hit new highs for the year during the November-December period after revenues dropped to below NT$10 billion in October, the sources commented.