Apple have been buying a lot of components in 2010 and the latest reports from IHS iSuppli show that while they still fall in behind market leader Samsung, they have surpassed Nintendo.

Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS) are tiny components which include gyroscopes and accelerometers, found inside Apple portable devices, such as the iPhone and iPad. When you rotate the screen for instance, the display will switch to match the positioning.

The report said “MEMS sensors bought by Apple last year included 3-axis gyroscopes from STMicroelectronics for the iPhone 4, iPod Touch, and–toward the end of 2010–the iPad 2 tablet. Apple also bought accelerometers for the above three devices as well as for the iPod nano and MacBook computer.”

IHS iSuppli say that Apple spent $195 million on these components, a 116.7 percent increase over the year previous. This purchasing means that Apple replace Nintendo, which came third with $123 million, translating to a 11.5 percent drop from 2009. Nintendo use similar technology in their products, such as the 3DS.

Samsung lead the way, with $200 million spent, as they bought up a huge share of microphones, gyroscopes and accelerometers and even items such as Digital Light Processing chips and acoustic wave filters. Samsung's spending went up a whopping 46 percent from the year previous ($137 million).

LG and Sony made fourth and fifth places respectively. Sony have been buying a lot of gyroscopes for their motion based Move controller for the Playstation 3.

KitGuru says: Popular technology and its constantly growing.

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