Apple Is Now World’s Top OEM Semiconducter Buyer [Stats]

Apple is now the world’s largest OEM semiconducter buyer, increasing their buying to $17.5 billion in 2010 from $9.7 billino in 2009, an astounding 79.6 percent increase year over year. In 2009 Apple was behind only HP and Samsung in terms of sales, while 2008 saw them relatively far back in sixth place.

According to Wenlie Ye of research firm IHS iSuppli, product supply buys were increased because of “the overwhelming success of its wireless products, namely the iPhone and the iPad.” Those two products consume vast amounts of NAND flash memory.

While the Apple/HP gap increased by $2.4 billion in 2010 that number is expected to compound to $7.5 billion through the end of this year. [Electronista]