ARM Plans for 20% of Notebook Processor Market by 2015

ARM Holdings Plc (ARM), whose chip designs power most smartphones, expects its processors to account for as much as 20 percent of those used in notebook computers by 2015, boosted by the release of Microsoft’s Windows 8 software.

Laptop computers using ARM will be lighter, contain no fan, and have a battery life that can last “days and days” when compared to models using the so-called x86 technology used by Intel Corp., Simon Segars, executive vice president of the Cambridge, U.K.-based company, said in an interview today in Taipei ahead of the Computex trade show.

ARM, whose designs are used in Apple Inc. and HTC Corp. smartphones, last week announced it will supply chip technology to Dell Inc. as part of a trend toward lower-power servers. An industry-wide pickup will start showing benefits in the third- quarter, the company said April 24.

“It’s an inflection point,” he said. “It’s been Windows on x86 for ever. This is the first time that Windows PCs have run on a different architecture.”

A shortage of industry production capacity for 28-nanometer technology won’t affect company revenue because clients can use 40-nanometer technology instead, Segars said.

Its stock, down 16 percent in London trading, is rated buy from 32 analyst recommendations compiled by Bloomberg. A further 10 say hold and five advise investors to sell the shares.

The company also plans to boost its market share for processors used in servers from about zero today to as much as 20 percent by 2015, he said.

Microsoft last week said it expects Windows 8 devices to be in stores by the year-end.

To contact the reporter on this story: Tim Culpan in Taipei at tculpan1@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Tighe at mtighe4@bloomberg.net.