Intel originally had big plans for this year, in terms of slates

Jul 31, 2014 08:48 GMT  ·  By

Like Samsung, Intel had big plans for the tablet market in 2014. The chip giant has officially announced that it had planned to ship 40 million chips until this year came to end, but according to sources inside the supply chain, the company will face difficulties in completing the goal it has set up for itself.

As reported by DigiTimes, Intel might be faced with issues in shipping 40 million tablet CPUs in 2014, because the release of its upcoming Cherry Trail platform has been delayed to the first quarter of 2015.

Originally, the architecture was supposed to be made available in November 2014, but as we have found out, Intel's plans tend to change like the tide.

The new Cherry Trail platform was apparently heavily relied upon to help boost sales throughout 2014. Even if Intel said that some 2-in-1 tablet/laptop hybrids with the new Broadwell architecture would be made available just in time for the holiday season, the wider availability of such products is expected in 2015.

Intel has been willing to go as far as to provide subsidies for tablet manufacturers, and so far the biggest adopter of the chip giant’s product is ASUS.

But Intel hasn't neglected the lower-end specter and has partnered up with low-cost Chinese player Rockchip in an attempt to make a smoother entry in the country, which is one of the loftiest tablet markets today.

However, the partnership is in its early stages and its results will probably be made visible throughout 2015. So Intel has been placing its apples in the Cherry Trail basket this year. It relies on 14nm Airmont architecture and has been designed to support 32- and 64-bit Windows and Android.

The current Bay Trail platform is made using the 22nm process, but Cherry Trail is produced using the more advanced 14nm process, which means that products taking advantage of the chip will boast improved performance and better efficiency in terms of battery life, so they will be able to last longer.

The Asian report now claims that devices bundling these processors won’t become available on the market until February 2015, so Intel will see the growth brought about by the existence of Cherry Trail devices in the year to come.

This means that the 2014 forecast had to be drastically reduced, and sources familiar with the matter say these devices are currently expected to amount to less than 30 million units in 2014, which is a whopping 10 million less than previously anticipated.