Date: 28/06/2011

IHS iSuppli: Apple is the top OEM buyer of semiconductor devices in 2010

IHS iSuppli find Apple Inc. is the largest buyer of semiconductors among original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) in 2010 for the first time ever.

IHS iSuppli says Apple in 2010 bought $17.5 billion worth of semiconductors, a 79.6 percent increase from $9.7 billion in 2009. Apple overtakes HP and Samsung Electronics to reach to top from 3rd position last year, as per IHS iSuppli.

Apple's rise is due to the demand of its two popular products iPhone and the iPad ( the smart phone and the tablet PC). iPhone, iPad, and iPod use NAND flash memory to large extent as storage memory to store data and media files, which results in increased billing amount of semiconductor chips in BOM.

IHS iSuppli feels Apple is likely to continue increasing its semiconductor spending during the coming years at an above-average pace, allowing the company to extend its lead over Hewlett-Packard, Samsung and other OEMs in 2011 and beyond. In 2011 Apple's semiconductor spending is expected to exceed that of Hewlett-Packard by $7.5 billion, up from $2.4 billion in 2010, estimates IHS iSuppli.