Josh OngWarren East told the Financial Times that sales of tablet PCs next year could jump to as many as 60 million units, most of which will contain ARM chips.
East conceded that a few models would use Intel's Atom processor, but doubted that they would be successful. “Atom designs are just not good enough in terms of power consumption [right now]. Intel knows this,†said East.
Apple's iPad, which uses an ARM-based CPU, is currently dominating the tablet market. Recent data from research firm Strategy Analytics suggests that the iPad made up a massive 95 percent of tablet sales last quarter.
According to East, the Consumer Electronics Show early next year will see a "raft of new devices" as the nascent tablet market begins to take off. Companies have rushed to develop competing tablets after seeing the runaway success of the iPad. Last month, one analyst calculated that the iPad has the fastest adoption rate of any consumer electronics device ever.
East wasn't completely optimistic about next years' sales, though, admitting concerns that consumer spending on electronics may weaken in the coming months.
“You can’t avoid that, it’s like the weather. We’re concerned that it might rain. There are clouds up there," said East. "But what we’ve experienced in 2009 was that Arm still outperformed the industry in a down year."
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20 Comments
The chief executive at ARM, which makes the CPU for Apple's iPad,
I really wish you'd bother to get at least the most basic facts right.
ARM doesn't make the iPad's CPU. ARM is a licensor of designs.
I really wish you'd bother to get at least the most basic facts right.
ARM doesn't make the iPad's CPU. ARM is a licensor of designs.
Thanks for the correction.
According to East, the Consumer Electronics Show early next year will see a "raft of new devices" as the nascent tablet market begins to take off.
Nascent? I keep seeing this word, every time people talk about the tablet market. I feel like the Spaniard from Princess Bride. You all know the line.
Forgive me for being pedantic here, but this bothers me. Tablets have been around for frikken ages. Remember the Newton? Don't wanna call that a tablet? Okay, then remember the Go tablet? Windows was in version 3.1 when that thing came out. Microsoft later made a whole version of Windows specifically for tablets. There were tons of tablets out there.
That's not to minimize the iPad. Exactly the opposite. These things have been around forever. They've appealed only to niches. They didn't set the world on its ear.
This year, Apple stepped in and showed everyone how to do it right, got 95% of that market. It has everyone scrambling to copy them. And so we have to recast the market as being nascent to explain it? Nascent brings with it the connotations of youth and future vitality. Just meeting the last criteria shouldn't be enough to use the term, because it then implies the first criteria and is thereby misleading.
Part of why this bothers me is that it minimizes Apple's contribution here. It's like a lot of things that came before. The iPod was not the first MP3 player; but after it came out, people acted like Apple succeeded because of some first-mover advantage it hadn't actually had. When the iPhone was announced, tons of people scoffed because the smart phone market had already matured to the point than no one could reasonably be expected to step in and make a splash. Now everyone is copying the iPhone and acting like it was an immature market that Apple got an early break with. And here we are now, talking about the iPad like tablets are some new thing. Be fair here. They've been around for ages, they sucked, Apple recast them in a way that took everyone off guard, and the market is exploding. But it's an ancient market. It simply sucked up until 2010.
Nascent? I keep seeing this word, every time people talk about the tablet market. I feel like the Spaniard from Princess Bride. You all know the line.
Forgive me for being pedantic here, but this bothers me. [?]
You are being pedantic, but that?s okay. The definition can be defined as its emergence and showing evidence of future growth and popularity. It really depends on how you define the tablet market.
Apple has redefined and re-imagined the tablet market, so we can consider it as being reborn. Also, in today?s society we can easily regard something that has become popular as its start. For instance, we could define an unknown actor?s nascent career that gets a lead role and becomes a household name seemingly overnight, regardless of how long they?ve been working at their craft. In the grand scheme of things this is still the beginning of the personal computer industry.
You are being pedantic, but that?s okay. The definition can be defined as it?s emergence and showing evidence of future growth and popularity. It really depends on how you define the tablet market.
Apple has redefined and re-imagined the tablet market, so we can consider it as being reborn. Also, in today?s society we can easily regard something that has become popular as its start. For instance, we could define an unknown actor?s nascent career that gets a lead role and becomes a household name seemingly overnight, regardless of how long they?ve been working at their craft. In the grand scheme of things this is still the beginning of the personal computer industry.
Really... He was right, but you felt you just had to throw your two cents in. The tablet market has been around for a long, long time. They were giving them out to executives like crazy during the .COM craze because it made people feel they were in the LEAD of the industry.
The consumer tablet is however something new. Apparently no one ever thought to include the every day person on their tablet. Now it's .....NEW