The market for embedded processors could grow to ten times the size of the market for mobile device chips, according to ARM CEO Warren East. In an interview with Mobile World Live, East indicated that while mobile devices remain a profitable sector for the company, ARM has its eye on getting its components into a much wider array of products.
Estimating the size of the mobile market in a few years, East offered a figure of potentially three to four billion tablets, smartphones, digital televisions, and PCs sold per year. East estimates the embedded market (industrial automation, digital signage, mass storage and automotive application), at thirty to forty billion units per year within five years time. Recent numbers from ARM support his supposition: an ARM conference call on Tuesday put growth in microcontroller products at 35 percent per year, even while overall industry shipments were down 10 percent.
Even with the continued focus on microcontrollers and other embedded components, ARM maintains a focus on mobile- and PC-oriented chip architecture as well. The company recently introduced its Cortex-A15, a quad-core design intended for notebooks and other thin computing products, and its other chip designs continue to appear in a range of mobile devices
