Microsoft can break into mobile market with our help, says ARM Holdings chief

11 April 2012

Microsoft's plan to use microchips designed by ARM Holdings in its smartphones and tablet computers will help the software giant establish a major presence in the market, ARM's president said today.

Tudor Brown said it was not too late for Microsoft to make a splash in the mobile market, which is dominated by Apple, Google and Research In Motion's Blackberry.

Microsoft is creating a version of its Windows operating system that runs on ARM-based processors, moving away from personal computers dominated by Intel's chips.

"With Microsoft, for some time it's been more a question of when, not whether, and finally it's now," Brown said at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. "We've been coaching and cajoling Microsoft for some time."

ARM licenses its processor architecture to companies such as Marvell and Qualcomm, who use it to make chips that have come to dominate the smartphone market.

ARM-based chips also lead in tablet computers, with devices being unveiled in Las Vegas by Motorola and Toshiba that run on ARM processors.

Intel has also had little success getting into smartphones and tablets because its processors are viewed as less energy-efficient than ARM-based chips.

"Microsoft needs ARM to have any chance of playing in that (mobile internet) space," Brown said.

Graphics chip-maker Nvidia has also said it will use ARM architecture to design central processors, challenging Intel on its home turf.

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