Apple spent $17.3 billion on semiconductors in 2011, driven mostly by the popularity of the iPhone, iPad and solid-state drives that ship by default with its MacBook Air. Apple’s spending increased 35 percent from 2010, when it spent $12.8 billion on semiconductors. HP, which had spent $17.6 billion in 2010, saw its PC shipments decline 16.2 percent year over year in the fourth quarter of 2011. That, combined with a lackluster year overall for PCs, drove HP’s spending down to $16.6 billion in 2011.
It is no coincidence that Apple’s biggest competition on the mobile device front was also its closest rival when it came to semiconductor spending. Samsung spent $16.7 billion in 2011, a 9 percent increase over its spending in 2011.
"— GigaOM - Apple takes the semiconductor spending crown as mobiles trump PCs (via pdl2h)
(via pdl2h)
