ARM: Over 50 tablet PC devices to ship this year

The coming swarm of tablets has even prompted ARM, Intel's main rival in the mobile microprocessor business, to rent more space at the Computex electronics trade show in Taipei this year to show off the devices, in addition to e-readers, mini-laptops and other devices that use ARM processing cores.

"The first tablet devices will launch in the second quarter by [mobile network] carriers," said Roy Chen, ARM's worldwide mobile computing ODM manager, during a press meeting in Taipei. "You'll see a lot more in the third quarter."

He said many tablet-like devices will be launched in China, but companies everywhere plan to launch tablets this year, including the top 10 telecommunications network operators. He declined to name specific companies.