SAN JOSE, Calif -- Apple dominated the market forapplications processors in tablets last year with Texas Instruments and Nvidiain a near tie for second place, according to a new market research report fromStrategy Analytics. The report was released the same day Apple is rolling outits next generation iPad in San Francisco, a device expected to sport anupgraded CPU, display, and cellular modem.
The still-young market for apps processors in tabletsexpanded by a whopping 230% in 2011 with Apple commanding 59% of the socketswith its A-series chip in the iPad, the report said. But the non-Apple part ofthe tablet market is growing even faster than Apple's share, it added.
TI's Omap chips captured 35% of the non-iPad tablet marketbuoyed by design wins in the Amazon Kindle Fire and Barnes & Noble Nook.Nvidia's Tegra came in a close second at 34% claiming sockets in tablets fromAcer, Asus, LG, Motorola, Samsung, Sony, Toshiba, and others.
Qualcomm and Intel, giants in smartphones and PCsrespectively, "missed the boat" in tablets in 2011, said Sravan Kundojjala, asenior analyst for handset component technologies at Strategy Analytics, in apress statement.
Likewise apps processor vendors Broadcom, ST-Ericsson,MediaTek, Marvell, and Renesas "need to improve their tablet market focus in2012 as these companies haven't scored significant tablet design-wins so far,"he said.
"We believe that Qualcomm is well-positioned to capturemeaningful share in LTE tablets and Windows 8 tablets in 2012," Kundojjalasaid. In addition, "Nvidia is well positioned to capture further share intablets with its quad-core Tegra 3 processor in 2012," he added.
A whopping 98% of the mobile apps processors used in 2011were ARM-based chips, the report estimates. However, Strategy Analytics said itexpects x86-based chips from Intel and AMD to eke out a slice of the market in2012 for tablets based on Android 4.0 and Windows 8.
"With Apple expected to announce its iPad 3 product today,the tablet market is poised for accelerated growth in the coming quarters,"Kundojjala said. "We expect strong efforts from Amazon, Google and Microsoftwill serve as key catalysts for the non-Apple tablet vendors in 2012," headded.
This story was originally posted by EETimes. 
