Demand for 7-8-inch white-box tablets with built-in 3G functionality in China has been increasing, a trend which is likely to benefit MediaTek and Qualcomm, according to industry sources.

　　Shipments of white-box 7-inch tablets with Wi-Fi technology currently enjoy the highest growth momentum in China's tablet market, and Wi-Fi chips used in these white-box models are mostly supplied by China-based Allwinner Technology and Rockchip Electronics, the sources indicated.

　　With branded vendors including Acer and Asustek Computer now foraying into the US$149-169 tablet segment, white-box tablet makers in China have been forced to use more 3G chips for production differentiations and performance upgrading, the sources noted.

　　Given that handset solutions from MediaTek and Qualcomm both are able to deliver better communication performance than those offerings from Allwinner and Rockchip, more white-box tablet makers have adopted 3G solutions from MediaTek and Qualcomm, revealed the sources.

　　Qualcomm's chipset solutions, including MSM8225Q and MSM8930, have been adopted by China's tablet makers, while the forthcoming new Nexus 7 to be launched by Google and Asustek reportedly will also utilize chipsets from Qualcomm, said the sources.

　　MediaTek has released its MTK8377 and MTK8389 solutions for tablet applications, with the MTK8389 being used by Acer for its 7-inch Iconia B1 model.

　　MediaTek indicated earleir that chipset orders from the tablet sector have been higher than expected and therefore it has revised upward its shipment target for tablet chipsets for 2013 to 10-15 million units from 5-10 million units set previously.