Apple surpassed HP and all other equipment manufacturers, to become largest consumer in the world of semiconductor technology, largely due to the popularity of its mobile devices.IHS iSuppli market studies, in 2010, Apple purchased $ 17.5 billion of semiconductors, a 79.6% of 9.7 billion increase he spent in 2009.
"Outbreak of Apple for the leadership in semiconductor, spending in 2010 was conducted by the huge success of its wireless products, namely the iPhone and the iPad," says iSuppli analyst Wenlie Ye. "These products consume vast amounts of memory NAND flash, which is also in Apple's iPod." Thus, Apple in 2010 was buyer no. 1 world of NAND flash. »While Apple is also five manufacturers who buy microprocessors, was NAND flash that propelled in first place overall, Ye said. "For Apple, now pass from 60 per cent of its Semiconductor to purchase budget wireless products, processors have the seat of the passenger to the NAND flash".
In 2010, HP lead the microprocessor market buys with $ 5.3 billion spent, followed by Dell with 4.2 billion and Apple with $ 2.5 billion.NAND flash, which is used to manufacture solid-state (SSD) drives, is a non-volatile storage medium, meaning when it is extinguished continues to retain data, unlike DRAM.Earlier this year, figures iSuppli showed Apple iPad led a thrust almost quintupled in the use of NAND flash memory this year as consumers gobble tablets in increasing numbers.According to iSuppli, shipments of NAND tablets of show no signs of slowing down and hits an exabytes 12.3 projected capacity shipped in 2014. Compared to the total supply of NAND flash memory in tablets will represent 11.8% of the supply of this year, up to 4.3% in 2010. Here 2014, compressed memory will be 16 per cent of all the NAND flash.
Classification of Apple between two locations of equipment manufacturers rose to obtain the number one spot. It surpassed HP United States and Samsung Electronics in South Korea, which had been no. 1 and no. 2, respectively.
In 2011 and beyond, Apple is likely to continue to increase its Semiconductor spending to a greater than average pace, allowing the company to extend its lead on HP and Samsung, iSuppli said. 2011 Semiconductor Apple spending should exceed that of HP of $ 7.5 billion, more than 2.4 billion in 2010.
Although traditionally hot competitors Apple and levels of consumption of HP flash NAND is an indication that the two companies are fundamentally different development pathways, according to iSuppli.
Apple has spent approximately 61% of its budget of 2010 semiconductor products wireless as the iPhone and iPad. However, HP has spent 82 percent of its Semiconductor spending on products computer as desktop computers, laptops and servers.
Ultimately, the NAND landscape appears for smartphones and tablets more oriented to product computer using a Windows/Intel platform, iSuppli said.
For example, the smartphone market and compressed outgrew greatly the segment of the computer in 2010 over the previous year. Smartphone shipments in 2010 was increased by 62%, while tablets exploded more than 900%, driven by the introduction of the first iPad. Global PC shipments increased from 14.2% in 2010.
"The strength of Apple in hardware sales lies in its ecosystem of device and media - each Apple product connected via iTunes/iOS and is in synergy with all other Apple products," iSuppli said in his report. "" "". As a result, incurred the Apple ecosystem users derive more value of each additional Apple device they purchase, and users have little interest to leave the Apple field. »
In other words, through a common ecosystem, Apple operates each device to sell other devices.
By comparison, the traditional PC business does not strongly focus on the creation of an ecosystem.
The iPad and Amazon Kindle electronic reader should also lead to an increase of 8% on the market of embedded NOR flash memory. Because nor allows random access to any memory location, is typically used as a memory read-only, as opposed to NAND flash, which is erased and rewritten several times.This year, shipments of memory chips or embedded applications are set to rise to 3.96 billion units, 3.64 billion units in 2010. NOR should continue to increase 7 to 9% annually during the next four years, amounting to 5.41 billion units of shipment by 2015."Now, the use of the memory flash NOR in tablets and e-book readers can represent a mere drop in the bucket compared to the total demand for the NOR embedded", Ryan Chien, a researcher at the memory and storage to iSuppli, said in a statement. "However, shipments for or tablets and e-book readers increase exponentially." In fact, the category combined for tablets and e-book readers will generate the highest sales growth for on-board NOR of any product in 2011 and subsequent years. »
In embedded market NOR, tablets and e-book readers this year will consume chips NOR of $ 80 million, a resumption of 196% of the 27 million units of shipment in 2010, said dog.
However, computers and hard drives will continue to dominate the market NOR embedded in 2011, with shipments up to 526 million units, or 13% of the market.
Other major embedded or markets include optical disk drives, with 333 million units, or to 8 per cent; networking, with 277 million units or a share of 7 per cent; and televisions, with 245 million units or a share of 6 percent.
