ARM Holdings—the British semiconductor design company that has made all of our gadgets more energy-efficient—has just announced that yes, it's done quite well for itself in the first quarter of 2013. The Cambridge-based company makes its money largely from licensing its intellectual property to other chipmakers.
According to new unaudited financial results ARM released on Tuesday, revenue is up 26 percent over the first quarter of last year, reaching nearly $264 million. Its profits before tax come in at over $136 million, a 44 percent increase over the corresponding previous quarter. ARM said the industry as a whole shipped 35 percent more ARM-based chips (now reaching 2.6 billion) in first quarter of 2013 compared to the same period last year.
Given ARM's rapid rise, is it any wonder that traditional chip companies like Intel and AMD (and the entire PC industry, for that matter) are having a rougher go of it?