Tablet Rise

TAIPEI, Jan 25 (AsiaPulse) - Tablet computers will contribute enormously to the worldwide semiconductor market by 2015 as different platforms compete to interest consumers, according to market intelligence firm Gartner Inc. Gartner forecasted that tablet semiconductor revenue will amount to US$20 billion (NT$604.5 billion) in 2015, compared with US$6 billion in 2011, ranking fourth behind semiconductor revenue in laptops, smartphones and desktop computers.

NAND flash memory, wireless connectivity and sensor devices will benefit from the emergence of tablet PCs, while processors with mixed impact and dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) will suffer, the research firm said.

"Software compatibility, design flexibility and cost of development will determine the winner," Taiwan-based Gartner analyst Ben Lee said at a recent press conference.

"Chip vendors should focus on evolving usage patterns while choosing processor architecture," he added.

Lee said major processor architectures for tablets, including ARM Holdings Plc, Intel Corp. and MIPS Technologies Inc., will level out on power efficiency and performance by 2015.

He believed that ARM will still dominate the market by that time due to th