Roger Fingas
Revenue at British chip designer ARM Holdings rose 22 percent to 227.5 million pounds ($339 million) in the first quarter, largely on the back of 64-bit smartphones such as the iPhone 6 and the newly-shipped Samsung Galaxy S6, a report noted on Tuesday.
The amount exceeded an average analyst forecast of $335 million, according to Bloomberg. During a conference call with reporters earlier today, ARM CFO Tim Score said that royalties were up because of "very, very high market share" in new smartphones.
In an official statement provided to Bloomberg, ARM did caution that it expects a sequential drop in industry revenues, but that this is consistent with seasonal trends. Many new smartphones are announced at Mobile World Congress in March, but launches then tend to peter out until the fall. Apple typically ships new iPhones in September.
Although devices like the iPhone 6 and Galaxy S6 use custom processors, both are based on licensed ARM architecture. This costs Apple and Samsung, but lets the companies devote more time and resources to optimizing their chips.
ARM's performance may be another sign that the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus have continued to sell well months after launch. Earlier this month, data from Kantar Worldpanel ComTech showed that by February the iPhone 6 was the best-selling smartphone in China and the UK, even if Android devices enjoyed greater global marketshare.
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Malcolm Owen
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19 Comments
I wonder why someone hasn't purchased Arm outright.
Such a shame Steve had to sell Apple's ARM holdings back in the days he was bringing Apple back from the dead.
I wonder if Samsung will pay the royalties or just ignore patents like they did with Apple?
I wonder why someone hasn't purchased Arm outright.
They're better independent since they need to appear vendor neutral. If Samsung bought ARM, would Apple stick around on the platform?
Not accurate.
Samsung uses off-the-shelf ARM processor designs like the A53/A57 in the new S6. Apple makes custom processors that run ARMv8 code. They are two completely different types of licenses from ARM.
Apple processors are far ahead of anything by ARM (and by extension, Samsung).