IT research company Gartner claims that Apple was the top semiconductor customer in 2011.

Gartner’s calculation is “Design Total Available Market,” or Design TAM, an index it says “represents the total silicon content in all products designed by a certain electronic equipment manufacturer or in a certain region.”

Gartner reports the major growth drivers in 2011 were smartphones, media tablets and solid state drives (SSDs). This is consistent with Apple’s successes with the iPhone, iPad and MacBook Air. Apple moved up from the number 3 slot to number 1, according to Gartner, beating out Samsung, HP and Dell.