Usage of NAND Flash in tablets to rise 400% in 2011

The bump in NAND consumption among tablets is likely to come from devices such as Apple's iPad, as well as a raft of other tablet devices powered by the rival Android operating system expected to hit the market this year. Together, the iPad and Android based tablets form one strand of the tablet experience offered by manufacturers - one centering on internet based media consumption. For such tablets, internal storage capacity is less of an issue because the devices are intended to provide entertainment rather than a full pc computing experience. IHS believes average memory densities will range from 27.1gB for non iPad slates to 41.5gB in the iPad. A second strand of tablet use proposes a pc computing experience, with the full suite of products from Microsoft and offered on the Windows/Intel platform. Such tablet devices generally come with 32 to 64GB of solid state storage. In an environment of strong NAND pricing, this density range is the highest that can be offered by manufacturers while still maintaining costs. Nonetheless, IHS maintains that because more memory cannot be provided for Windows/Intel tablets without driving cost, the value proposition they provide will not be as compelling as their Apple/Android counterparts. Research also suggests that Windows based tablets will lose on another count. Though their rival media consumption tablets with lower storage requirements means fewer NAND flash shipments, a greater adoption rate by consumers is expected to make up for the difference, meaning tablets like the iPad will end up contributing significantly to NAND consumption by 2012. Ultimately, IHS believes the NAND landscape will favour entertainment focused tablets over computing oriented models.