The market for 4G LTE smartphones in China is expected to reach 160-200 million units in 2014, MediaTek has estimated. The solution vendor plans to launch its first 8-core 4G chip, the MT6595, in the third quarter of the year.

　　MediaTek's estimation came after China Mobile said that it aims to sell over 100 million 4G smartphones in 2014, while fellow companies China Unicom and China Telecom expect to ship over 30 million units each during the same period.

　　Eyeing the growing 4G market, MediaTek also plans to release its 64-bit 8-core 4G MT6752 and the 64-bit quad-core 4G MT6732 chips, before the end of 2014, according to industry sources.

　　MediaTek has delivered samples of its 8-core MT6595 chips as well as related reference designs to clients in China for product development, the sources noted.

　　It is believed that the top-four China-based smartphone vendors – ZTE, Huawei, Coolpad and Lenovo – are developing at least one 4G smartphone each, using 4G solutions from MediaTek, said the sources, adding that other vendors including Vivo, Oppo, Xiaomi Technology and Meizu are also likely to adopt MediaTek's 4G solutions.