Analyst sees 'One ARM per Person' per year by 2014

LONDON — The annual shipment of processors from ARM plc (Cambridge, England) is scheduled to track global population growth over the next few years, and there should be 'One ARM per Person' by 2014, according to market trackers Semicast.

Using data from the UN's World Population Prospects database, Semicast (London, England) suggests the world population will grow from 6.1 billion in 2000 to 7.3 billion in 2015. In comparison, Semicast's analysis shows units of ARM-based processors growing from 0.4 billion to 8.2 billion, with shipments over this period estimated to total almost 55 billion.

"ARM's annual shipments reached one billion in 2004, two billion in 2006 and four billion last year. Allowing for a drop-off in 2009, we forecast annual shipments will pass five billion in 2012, with the ‘one per person’ milestone of just over seven billion units being reached in 2014," comments Colin Barnden, Principal Analyst at Semicast Research.

Semicast's analysis suggests mobile phones will remain the biggest volume application for the ARM architecture, but the market research group forecasts significant opportunities for the architecture in in applications such as home networking gear, games consoles, media players/MP3 players, digital cameras, digital TVs, set-top boxes and DVD recorders.

ARM is also forecast to be a leading player in the booming consumer medical appliance market, while other key growth areas include printers, personal storage and smart cards.