Taipei Times: ARM set an ambitious target of seizing more than 50 percent of the world’s mobile PC chip market by 2015 at a time when mobile devices have grown 2.5 fold to about 750 million units from 300 million units this year. What do you see that makes your company feel optimistic about its market share expansion?
Ian Drew: Three things. I think the whole product range going from smartphones to digital TVs — which are smartbooks, ebooks, media tablets, clamshell [laptops] and everything else — and I think what we’ve got now is something we haven’t had in the PC industry for a long time, which is the ability to differentiate from different things.
Like your laptops now may be not much different from what you had three years ago, while your tablets can come in different sizes, or tablets that dock with phones or other things.
That is No. 1. And No. 2, I think there is a lot of software. You have Web browsers, Android, Microsoft’s browser, Chrome OS.
The third thing is, everybody wants the Internet everywhere. This whole connectivity is really driving new growth.
We already had about 10 percent [market share] last year. We expect to grow to between 15 percent to 20 percent this year. So, if you look at new software and new products coming out, I think it’ll be about 50 percent [by 2015].
TT: How will ARM benefit from Microsoft’s decision to use ARM architecture in its next-generation operating system? Will this give a boost to ARM’s royalty revenues?
Drew: I think it opens a new market for us. It opens a new opportunity for Microsoft as well, and I think one plus one is more than two in this case. I think our ecosystem and Microsoft’s ecosystem will have great future growth opportunities.
I really think we have two worlds — the mobile world and the PC world. Cloud computing and Internet everywhere means it is harder and harder to differentiate between what is the phone world and what is the PC world. We have to redefine everything. What we used to call PCs is personal computers, but a phone is more a personal device to you now than your PC.
We get royalties from chip, CPU companies like Qualcomm, not from software companies. The partnership with Microsoft helps us shift to new area like notebooks. But we do not get royalties from Microsoft, but from notebook computers and others. It will indirectly increase our royalties.
TT: What is the next big thing?
Drew: Servers and data centers. When I click on my [Apple Inc] iPhone, it’s going to the Web and it goes to data centers. These mobile phones and tablets will fuel data center usage. I see big data center growth because of the explosive content demand everywhere. The next big thing is making sure that is energy efficient as well.
When you say the hope is on the enterprises, but in reality, a lot of growth comes from consumers using all these devices.
TT: Being a long-term partner with Intel and Microsoft, Taiwanese companies are slow to pitch new products into the mobile PC market. They do not know what consumers really like, but are just being followers of Apple and the like. What do you think?
Drew: They used to do what Intel told them to do. Intel has a traditional concept of what a laptop should look like. Now they have more freedom. [Local companies start adopting new open software such as Android and Chrome, which gives room for hardware makers to design their products without a product stereotype for them to follow.]
SEEKING CLARITY: Washington should not adopt measures that create uncertainties for ‘existing semiconductor investments,’ TSMC said referring to its US$165 billion in the US Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) told the US that any future tariffs on Taiwanese semiconductors could reduce demand for chips and derail its pledge to increase its investment in Arizona. “New import restrictions could jeopardize current US leadership in the competitive technology industry and create uncertainties for many committed semiconductor capital projects in the US, including TSMC Arizona’s significant investment plan in Phoenix,” the chipmaker wrote in a letter to the US Department of Commerce. TSMC issued the warning in response to a solicitation for comments by the department on a possible tariff on semiconductor imports by US President Donald Trump’s
The government has launched a three-pronged strategy to attract local and international talent, aiming to position Taiwan as a new global hub following Nvidia Corp’s announcement that it has chosen Taipei as the site of its Taiwan headquarters. Nvidia cofounder and CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Monday last week announced during his keynote speech at the Computex trade show in Taipei that the Nvidia Constellation, the company’s planned Taiwan headquarters, would be located in the Beitou-Shilin Technology Park (北投士林科技園區) in Taipei. Huang’s decision to establish a base in Taiwan is “primarily due to Taiwan’s talent pool and its strength in the semiconductor
Industrial production expanded 22.31 percent annually last month to 107.51, as increases in demand for high-performance computing (HPC) and artificial intelligence (AI) applications drove demand for locally-made chips and components. The manufacturing production index climbed 23.68 percent year-on-year to 108.37, marking the 14th consecutive month of increase, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said. In the first four months of this year, industrial and manufacturing production indices expanded 14.31 percent and 15.22 percent year-on-year, ministry data showed. The growth momentum is to extend into this month, with the manufacturing production index expected to rise between 11 percent and 15.1 percent annually, Department of Statistics
An earnings report from semiconductor giant and artificial intelligence (AI) bellwether Nvidia Corp takes center stage for Wall Street this week, as stocks hit a speed bump of worries over US federal deficits driving up Treasury yields. US equities pulled back last week after a torrid rally, as investors turned their attention to tax and spending legislation poised to swell the US government’s US$36 trillion in debt. Long-dated US Treasury yields rose amid the fiscal worries, with the 30-year yield topping 5 percent and hitting its highest level since late 2023. Stocks were dealt another blow on Friday when US President Donald
RSS