Apple in 2011 increased its procurement of MEMS microphones by 173%, touching 349m units, up from 128m in 2010, according to an IHS iSuppli MEMS Market Brief from IHS.
This made Apple the world’s largest purchaser of microelectromechanical system (MEMS) microphones in 2011, as it recorded impressive sales growth of iPhones, headsets and iPads.
This led Apple to unseat Samsung Electronics at the top position and also to make the company the number one buyer of MEMS microphone buyers.
Apple alone accounted for 27% of MEMS bought in the year 2011, compared to 20% by Samsung.
IHS MEMS and sensors director and principal analyst Jérémie Bouchaud said Apple in 2010 sounded the starting gun for the current boom in MEMS microphone sales when it adopted the devices in its iPhone 4.
"However, with the addition of MEMS microphones into the highly successful iPad 2 in 2011, Apple’s purchasing of the tiny devices went into overdrive. When combined with strong increases in its buys of MEMS microphones for iPhone headsets, Apple outstripped all other rivals to become the largest consumer of the devices, helping the drive the growth of the overall market," he added.
