IHS iSuppli finds Apple's iPad tablet
is design efficient to beat its competitors
IHS iSuppli praises Apple design for its hardware and software
features. IHS iSuppli says competitive tablet manufacturers
still can't match the design efficiency of Apple's iPad
tablet.
The design advantages and features of Apple iPad over other
tablets as per IHS iSuppli includes:
Other tablet makers employ operating systems from third-party
firms-such as Google Inc., which provides the Android software
used in most competitive products on the market today. Many
of these tablet makers also outsource the blueprints of
their products to third parties, employing reference designs
and design services from contract manufacturers.
This contrasts with the model employed by Apple, which uses
its own operating system and maintains tight control of
its design, components and contract manufacturers.
iPad's Memory and Battery Stay Slim: Apple's control over
the operating system allows it to reduce costs by limiting
the quantity of memory in the iPad. In the current-generation
iPad 2, the density of synchronous dynamic random access
memory (SDRAM) is 512 megabytes-half that of the 1 gigabtye
used in competitive designs. This memory density reduction
results in a nearly $14 reduction in the BOM of the iPad
2 compared to other tablets. Likewise, the original iPad
contained half as much SDRAM as comparable competitive devices
with single-core applications processors.
Also, Apple's tight management of its product design, software
integration and component selection also allow the iPad's
battery to be the thinnest of all competing tablet designs
while still having the largest capacity.
Tablet Trends: Extensive teardown research also reveals
how Apple is setting the pace in the tablet market in the
areas of pricing and screen size.
Apple established the sweet spot for tablet pricing, pegged
at $500 for the Wi-Fi version of the Apple iPad that included
16 gigabytes of NAND flash memory. Samsung reinforced this
pricing standard with the 16-gigabyte version of the new
Galaxy Tab 10.1 model.
Other tablets such as the BlackBerry Playbook from Research
in Motion Ltd. and the TouchPad from Hewlett-Packard Co.
have gravitated toward that price point as well.
Apple also is setting the standard for display sizes, with
the iPad's 9.7-inch screen becoming the default standard
in the market. Although some tablets have been introduced
with screens in the 7-inch range, notably RIM's BlackBerry
PlayBook and the upcoming HTC Flyer, the number of designs
in the market with 10.1- and 9.7-inch displays have been
more plentiful.
"Dual-ing" Tablets : The IHS iSuppli Teardown
Analysis Service also illustrates the trend toward multi-core
processors in tablet designs. Following the introduction
of the Motorola Xoom in February and the iPad 2 in March,
all new tablet designs within 2011 have included dual-core
processors that deliver higher computing and graphical performance.
In 2012 IHS expects to see this trend to continue with
the introduction of tablets featuring quad-core processors
for even more enhanced performance.
"Since Apple controls both the operating system and
hardware design of the iPad, it is able to attain design
efficiencies that other tablet manufacturers cannot,"
said Wayne Lam, senior analyst, competitive analysis, at
IHS. "These efficiencies become obvious in areas like
the memory and the battery, where Apple maintains advantages
in cost, space savings and performance compared with every
competitor in the business."
"Apple takes a vertically integrated approach to its
products, from the operating system to the user interface,
to the hardware design, down to the selection of individual
parts used in the device," Lam noted. "For example,
Apple even uses its own applications processor design in
both the iPad and iPad 2. In contrast, Android tablet makers
buy those capabilities from the likes of Nvidia, Texas Instruments
and Qualcomm. This gives Apple greater control in multiple
areas of product development."
"The iPad's efficient memory usage stems from the
fundamental difference in the architecture of the operating
system," Lam said. "Apple's iOS handles multitasking
differently than other tablet operating systems, allowing
it to reduce the amount of memory required to support the
microprocessor."
