Tablet TAM
While it remains to be seen how much of an overnight success Apple's first foray into the tablet market is going to be, tech industry analyst In-Stat reckons the iPad will catalyse a massive market opportunity for the semiconductor industry.
In-Stat says the total available market for tablets will rise to around 50 million by 2014. They will cost, on average, $400-$500 based on bill of material (BoM) estimates and In-Stat must calculate the semiconductor part of that BoM to be around $80-$100 as it is predicting a total potential semiconductor opportunity of $4.1 billion.
"Tablets have quickly become a high priority for competitors across the value chain, including mobile operators," says Jim McGregor, In-Stat analyst. "Even more important, is that the opportunity in tablets is complementary to other mobile devices, particularly smartphones and netbooks."
This means that McGregor reckons people will buy a tablet as well as a smartphone and notebook, and is more or less consistent with Steve Jobs' assertion that the iPad resides in a new category in-between smartphones and notebooks. However, Jobs thinks the tablet will replace the netbook in this in-between category.
The category also has the potential to unite the channels, with it being a computer, sold as a consumer electronics device, often on telco contracts. Most major semiconductor companies, including Intel, Qualcomm and NVIDIA, are banking on a lot of growth coming from the mobile Internet device category in the coming years.
