Apple is now the largest semiconductor customer in the world, analysts claim, the company's appetite for smartphone, tablet and solid-state drive chips consuming 5.7-percent of the total available market. Apple grew 34.6-percent from 2010 to take the top spot in 2011, analysts Gartner reckon, with Samsung holding second place with 5.5-percent and previous number one, HP, slipping to third. "Media tablets were also a growth driver for the semiconductor market throughout 2011" Gartner analyst Masatsune Yamaji said of the results, pointing to Apple and Samsung's respective successes with the iPad and Galaxy Tab.
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‘research’ Stories
Apple biggest semiconductor consumer in 2011 as iPhone, iPad gobble chips
178m Ultrabook shipments predicted for 2016, but tablets still ahead
MacBook Air-rivaling ultrabooks will outpace tablets in growth over the next three years, new research suggests, though slates are expected to outsell the Intel-driven ultraportables for the foreseeable future. 178m ultrabooks are expected to be shipped per year by 2016, Juniper Research predicts, compared to 253m tablets, despite ultrabook shipments growing three times faster over the next half-decade. However, despite the rapid increase in overall demand, individual ultrabook manufacturers are still expected to struggle.
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iPhone 4S survey shows many choose 64GB version
I always think I download a lot of apps and other material for my smartphone and when I used an iPhone, I thought it was packed with apps. I had the smallest storage version of the smartphone though and was never in danger of running out of space. Many people are now opting for the big storage version of the 4S according to the latest numbers from Consumer Intelligence Research Partners.
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Tablet and eReader ownership surged over 2011 holidays
Tablet and ereader market share in the US almost doubled after strong holiday 2011 sales, new research suggests, with 19-percent of adults now owning at least one of the devices. Lowered cost of dedicated ereaders contributed to the increased demand, Pew Research claims, while low-cost tablets such as the NOOK Tablet decreased the cost of entry to slates and helped drive demand for Android models.
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350,000 iBooks textbooks downloaded in three days
Apple's iBooks 2 digital textbook launch last week may not have convinced everyone that the classroom is the best place for the iPad, but over 350,000 downloads of textbooks in the first three days of availability suggests there's big demand for learning on the iOS slate. The figures were tracked by Global Equities Research's proprietary monitoring system, AllThingsD reports, while downloads of the free iBooks Author tool have also apparently been successful.
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Tablet shoppers outspend PC and smartphone users says research
Spend-friendly tableteers splash out significantly more on online purchases than their smartphone and desktop/notebook counterparts, according to new research, with those doing their holiday 2011 shopping on an iPad or other slate spending 21-percent more on average than those using a traditional computer. In fact, tablet shoppers spend 54-percent more than smartphone shoppers, according to a new Adobe Digital Marketing Insights report, and are almost three times more likely to buy products and services.
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iPhone 4S fuels rocketing Apple demand in Q4 2011
Android continues to rule the roost in the smartphone segment, in terms of sheer numbers at least, but Apple's iPhone 4S launch bucked the overall trend in Q4 2011 with huge demand almost outweighing new Android sales. The figures, collected by Nielsen, suggest over 46-percent of US smartphone owners use an Android device in the final quarter of 2011, compared to 30-percent using an iPhone. However, by December, almost 45-percent of new smartphone buyers opted for one of Apple's handsets.
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WristQue wireless bracelet offers smart home motion control
A sensor-packed wireless wristband could individually control home and office HVAC systems and, one day, act as a motion-sensing interface between humans and machines, if researchers have their way. Part of MIT's MediaLab responsive environments research, WristQue is 3D-printed band containing a CPU, sensors for temperature, humidity and light, and a UWB radio used for communicating with home automation systems as well as pinpointing the wearer's location.
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Newly discovered molecule might help curb global warming
Apparently, a new molecule has been discovered floating around in the atmosphere that has the ability to possibly fight global warming. Researchers from the University of Manchester Bristol and Sandia National Laboratories in the US have detected the new molecule that has been dubbed Criegee biradicals.
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Phobos-Grunt crashes into the Pacific Ocean
If you have been following the drama surrounding Russia's failed attempt to send a probe dubbed Phobos-Grunt to the moon, the saga is now over. The probe failed to reach an orbit that would allow the massive scientific tool to start its trip to the Red Planet. The probe instead started to fall back to Earth. With so many factors contributing to where something falling back to Earth from Space might land, no one knew exactly where Phobos-Grunt would hit.
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Cockroach RoboBugs could be coming soon — espionage at its finest
These might not be interstellar cockroaches like we saw on Men in Black but they are what many call RoboBugs, or Cyborg bugs. Since cockroaches are basically indestructible and seem to live forever what better bug to make our robobugs with right? You might not know much about this but scientists have been working on these type of bomb-sniffers, espionage, and search and rescue bugs for long time and might have finally made a break-through.
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IBM creates atomic storage device with only 12 atoms
The technology world is always marching on, and a big push is to make things like computers and storage systems smaller, faster, and higher capacity. That can get to be very tricky though with processes used for microprocessors and other tech already working at the nanometer level. IBM has created a new method of storing data, creating a storage device that needs an amazingly tiny number of atoms.
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