Intel is pushing aggressively into the education tablet market and reportedly placed orders for 10 million units with Foxconn Electronics (Hon Hai Precision Industry) and six million units with Elitegroup Computer Systems (ECS) recently, according to sources from the upstream supply chain. Intel, ECS and Foxconn declined to comment about their orders.

　　Education tablets have become popular among countries worldwide and governments such as China and Turkey have both recently placed orders for education tablets. Since Turkey is set to release more education tablet procurement orders for 2014, vendors such as Apple, Microsoft and Samsung Electronics are all aggressively preparing to land related orders, the sources said.

　　For 2014, Intel internally expects its tablet-chip shipments to reach 60 million units, up significantly from 10 million units in 2013, the sources noted.

　　Since Intel have been providing subsidies to attract brand vendors and ODMs, several vendors are already set to release Intel-based tablets in 2014. Asustek has also recently released its new 8-inch VivoTab Note 8, featuring an Intel Atom processor and Windows 8.1 operating system.

　　Intel China's executives have also been making frequent visits to China's white-box vendors in Shenzhen, hoping to convince them to adopt Intel's platforms, the sources noted.

　　Intel is set to host its Intel Developer Forum (IDF) China in Shenzhen from April 2-3 to show its respect to vendors in the region, the sources added. Some market watchers expect white-box tablet shipments in 2014 to grow 15% from 90 million units in 2013.