IHS has released an excellent comparison of the costs of nine recent tablets, pointing to 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, says IHS. 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.
“The iPad’s efficient memory usage stems from the fundamental difference in the architecture of the operating system,” said Wayne Lam, senior analyst, competitive analysis, at IHS. “Apple’s iOS handles multitasking differently than other tablet operating systems, allowing it to reduce the amount of memory required to support the microprocessor.”
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 and the TouchPad from Hewlett-Packard 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. IHS iSuppli Teardown Analysis Service.
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