Intel originally planned to ship 40 million tablet processors in 2014, but may not be able to do so as its upcoming Cherry Trail-based processors have been delayed from November to the first quarter of 2015, according to sources from the upstream supply chain.

The release of the 14nm Cherry Trail-based processors was originally slated for the third quarter to help boost Intel's tablet processor shipments for 2014, but the company has twice rescheduled its release, first to November and now to first-quarter 2015, the sources said.

Intel has been giving subsidies to brand vendors for its tablet processors and Asustek Computer is currently the largest adopter of its CPUs. Intel has also been helping China white-box players adopt its processors for their devices.

Intel's Cherry Trail adopts 14nm Airmont architecture and supports 32- and 64-bit Windows and Android. Devices adopting the processors may not be available in the market until February, while Broxton-based processors will also be postponed to the second half of 2015, the industry sources said.

Some market watchers expect Intel's tablet processor shipments to total less than 30 million units in 2014.