Apple’s iPad is leading an almost five-fold surge in NAND flash memory use this year as consumers buy tablets such as the iPad in increasing numbers, according to a report released Friday by HIS iSuppli -- as reported by "Computerworld' (http://macte.ch/OZJSC).

The consumption of NAND flash memory chips, which are used to build solid-state drives (SSDs) used in mobile devices, is expected to soar to 2.3 billion gigabytes (2.3 exabytes) this year, up a 382.4% from 476.8 million gigabytes (or 476.8 petabytes) in 2010, the article adds. According to iSuppli, shipments of NAND for tablets shows no sign of slowing down, eventually hitting 12.3 exabytes of capacity shipped by 2014.

When measured against the total supply of NAND flash, memory in tablets will represent 11.8% of the supply this year, up from a 4.3% in 2010, says iSuppli. By 2014, tablet memory will represent 16% of all NAND flash.