Spreadtrum Communications announced on January 22 that it has entered the tablet market by introducing a quad-core chipset and a turnkey reference design.

　　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 tablet solution is sampling with customers now and is expected to reach mass production in February 2014.

　　"China manufacturers are rapidly increasing their production of tablets, and we are pleased to introduce a low-cost chipset coupled with a turnkey reference design for this market," said Leo Li, chairman and CEO of Spreadtrum. "This 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."

　　According to Gartner, "the worldwide tablet market is forecast to grow 47% in 2014 with lower average selling prices attracting new users. Consumers continue to buy tablets as an additional device that they carry everywhere. 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.