Tablet vendors have been pushing models with large displays, phone functions and dual-SIM card support to attract demand from emerging markets such as countries in Southeast Asia, according to sources from the upstream supply chain.
Since demand for regular tablets has been dropping, while demand is rising for large-size smartphones, vendors have been changing their tablet designs to make their devices more like smartphones in order to boost sales.
Countries such as India and Indonesia are both seeing strong demand for tablets with phone functions as these devices are more suitable for playing multimedia content, the sources said.
Asustek Computer recently released its 7-inch Fonepd with dual-SIM card support, while Hewlett-Packard (HP) also has a Slate tablet supporting the function.
Several China-based vendors including Teclast Electronics, Onda, Vido and Colorfly are also offering tablets with dual-SIM card support in the country.
Currently, vendors only need to spend an extra US$20-30 to add a 3G module into a Wi-Fi-only tablet, but a dual-SIM card-supporting 7-inch tablet is priced at about NT$7,000 (US$234), much higher than a conventional 7-inch tablet, which have average prices around NT$4,000 (US$134), the sources added.
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