SANTA CLARA, CA – Whitebox vendors are the fastest growing segment of the worldwide tablet PC market, says DisplaySearch. Whitebox tablet PC players increased shipments to 1.9 million units in the first quarter of 2011, up 235% sequentially.

China represented the largest market for whitebox tablet PCs, accounting for 44% of worldwide shipments, says the firm. Overall shipments of the tablet PC category were down 5.2% sequentially, to 9.7 million units, but up nearly thirteen-fold year-over-year.

Apple remains the leader in the tablet PC market with a 54% share, and is the leader in many aspects of the segment in terms of usage experience, hardware design and price, says DisplaySearch. The growing size of the whitebox tablet PC market, with nearly a 20% share in the first quarter, is a sign of increasing demand by the mainstream market for tablets.

The whitebox tablet PC space is made up of screen sizes primarily in the 7" and 10.1" wide categories, but also includes screens mirroring the Apple/HP form factor of a 9.7" 4:3 format.

The whitebox tablet market in emerging regions is price sensitive and is partially able to exist because whitebox tablet makers use panels left unused by major brands with slightly lower quality levels, like lower brightness, according to the research firm. Using panels from what is essentially a secondary market allows device makers to offer aggressive pricing compared to iPads. Despite some quality issues of these whitebox tablets, they remain appealing to value conscious buyers, such as students, who are shopping based on price.

Cross checks with tablet supply chain participants, such as chipset providers, indicate potential growth opportunities for the whitebox tablet market in the future. While China is the biggest market for whitebox tablet PCs, other emerging regions are also adopting these tablets, including Asia Pacific, Latin America, and parts of EMEA.

The other segments of the mobile PC market, mini-note and notebook PC, experienced sequential and year-over-year growth rates similar to tablet PCs. The mini-note segment grew 17.3% sequentially in China as a result of holiday demand, but year-over-year results declined 10.2%. The opposite occurred in the notebook segment, where shipments sequentially declined 5.9%, while shipments year-over-year slightly rose 1.6%.