IC design house MediaTek in early 2014 set target shipments of 15 million APs (application processors) for 4G smartphones, and is confident of reaching the goal due to expected large demand in the China market in the second half, according to the company.

MediaTek targets China-based smartphone vendors for its 4G APs. While 4G smartphone sales in the China during the first half of 2014 fell significantly short of expectations, China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom will offer attractive contract-bundled subsidies to promote 4G subscriptions and smartphones in the second half. As a result, China-based vendors plan to launch several 4G smartphones in the China market, bringing good business opportunities for MediaTek.

Although MediaTek shipped only 2-3 million 4G APs in the first half of 2014, the company will begin to ship its MT6590, MT6582 and MT6595, 4G APs, in July and expects shipments to boom through the end of the year. Monthly shipments of 4G APs are expected to exceed two million units beginning the third quarter, leading to shipments of 12-15 million units for the second half of 2014, MediaTek said