Though tablets are still predicted to out-sell traditional PCs and notebooks this holiday season, the devices still saw declining declining shipments throughout the spring. Analysts attributed the declines to a lack of new tablet devices and the impending saturation of western markets.

Now, with new tablets finally making their way into stores, shipments of the products are finally heating up again. Market analyst firm NPD today released data showing that tablet panel shipments were back up in July, after three months of decline. The firm estimates that 23 million tablet panels were shipped in July, an 8% increase over panel shipments the previous month.

Unsurprisingly, NPD credits panels for 7-inch tablets for nearly half of July’s panel shipment numbers. With consumers seemingly looking to smaller low-priced tablets for their needs, 10-inch tablets have lost tablet market share over the past year and even newer 8-inch tablets have failed to excite consumer demand.

In addition to large tablet vendors such as Samsung and Amazon, NPD is predicting that low-end “white-box” brands are now a major player in the mini-tablet space. The firm’s numbers are showing that 59% of the 7″ panels shipped in July were destined for white-box brand tablets.

“It’s been increasingly challenging for Apple, Samsung, and other name brands to gain greater market share because low-priced private-label brands continue to dominate the tablet PC market,” said Deborah Yang, research director for Monitor and TV at NPD. “Even so, white-box tablet PC players are now facing inventory supply chain issues that have plagued the industry in recent months, which could hamper their future growth.”