Edible Apple

Apple is one of the largest purchasers of accelerometers, gyroscopes and other sensors in the world, just barely trailing Samsung.

A new report from iSupply reveals that Apple’s purchase of MEMS sensors increased 116.7% from 2009 to 2010 and now checks in at $195 million annually. MEMS stands for Microelectromechanical systems which are extremely small mechanical devices which are powered electricity – and of which accelerometers, gyroscopes, and microphones are all a part.

“Consumers in 2010 happily bought up Apple products including the iPhone 4, the iPad and iPod Touch,” Jeremie Bouchaud, iSuppli’s principal analyst for MEMS said. “Much of the appeal of these products lies in their sophisticated user interfaces, which rely heavily on MEMS sensors, specifically accelerometers, gyroscopes and microphones. This caused Apple’s purchasing to boom in 2010.”

Apple of course began purchasing gyroscopes when it introduced the iPhone 4 last Summer and subsequently added it to the fourth-gen iPod touch and the iPad 2. The aforementioned devices also sport accelerometers, which can also be found on the iPod nano and MacBook notebooks as well.

Meanwhile, Samsung in 2010 purchased $200 million worth of MEMS sensors, a 46% increase from their $137 million expenditures in 2009. Nintendo rounds out the third spot with $123 million 2010 expenditures, a drop of 11.5% from their 2009 purchases. The report explains Nintendo’s dip as being the result of Wii market saturation. Fewer Wii’s equals fewer controllers and subsequently fewer accelerometers needed.

via Digitimes