Tablets expected to be fourth-largest semiconductor market by 2014
Sales of semiconductors integrated on tablets are expected to reach $18.2 billion in 2014, an incredible uptick from the 35th place with $2.6 billion in 2010.
Tablets ranked eighth in 2011 and are expected to rise to fifth place in 2012.
Dale Ford, head of electronics and semiconductor research at IHS iSuppli, remarked in the report that the rise of the tablet from a category that was non-existent a few years ago to what it is now as rather "unprecedented."
Driven primarily by Apple’s iPad, the media tablet in four years is expected to scale semiconductor heights that took more than a decade for other products to attain, such as notebook PCs and cellphones. This meteoric ascension will have major repercussions for the global semiconductor industry, as it realigns to accommodate the fast growth and vast size of the media tablet market.
Ford added that the rise of specific applications and platforms has given way to the rise of semiconductor "powerhouses" such as Intel and Qualcomm in the past. While anything is possible, Ford implied that might not be the case with tablets as there is a wider opportunity for more suppliers with this platform.
Chart via IHS iSuppli
Related: