Recently we initiated quarterly coverage on tablet apps processor market to complement our broad mobile processor market coverage. Here are some highlights from our quarterly tablet apps processor market share report:

• Apple continues to lead in the tablet apps processor market and held 61 percent unit share in Q1 2011. Apple is expected to retain its leadership despite the rising competition as most iPad rivals still lack coherent content and developer ecosystems.
• In non-iPad tablets, NVIDIA topped with 34.4 percent unit volume share in Q1 2011, thanks to NVIDIA's first-mover advantage with the dual-core Cortex-A9 processors and Honeycomb Android design-wins. Provisionally we estimate that NVIDIA's tablet apps processor share increased to 48.6 percent in Q2 2011 in non-iPad tablets.  NVIDIA's Tegra 2 processors featured in multiple tablets from tier-one vendors including the Motorola Xoom, Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 and 8.9, Dell Streak 7, LG Optimus Pad 3D, Acer Iconia Tab 500 and Asus Eee Pad Transformer. NVIDIA is expected to maintain this momentum with its upcoming Kal-El quad-core processor.
• Qualcomm, TI, Samsung and Intel also featured in our top-five non-iPad tablet apps processor rankings.
• We estimate that x86 processors accounted for less than 5 percent of total tablet apps processors shipped in Q1 2011. Intel is expected to support Android tablets from later this year which could potentially improve the x86-based processor share in tablets.
• By our estimates, stand-alone apps processors accounted for 93.5 percent of total tablet apps processors shipped in Q1 2011 and we continue to believe stand-alone apps processors will dominate the tablet market in the near-to-medium term given the business model and pricing issues surrounding Wi-Fi-only versus 3G / 4G connectivity integrated tablets. We expect Qualcomm's upcoming LTE Snapdragon processor MSM8960 could potentially increase integrated processors' share in tablets.
• The non-iPad camp is still waiting for a blockbuster product and we believe most tablet apps processor suppliers' fortunes are now tied up with this to see further growth. We expect Amazon's rumored tablet and Microsoft's Windows 8 platform could potentially serve as positive catalysts for tablet apps processor vendors.