ARM President Says Royalties from Microsoft to Begin in 2012

With Microsoft readying a demo tablet powered by an ARM-based NVIDIA Tegra 2 chip, ARM is poised to begin collecting dividends.

ARM President Tudor Brown told Bloomberg that his company might begin generating royalties from Microsoft — via its ARM-powered Windows tablets and laptops — by next year.

“Where it gets potentially game changing is, what other opportunities does it open up for Microsoft,” Brown told Bloomberg. “This opens up a much bigger market, and makes a valid and viable operating system for” TVs and cars.

Brown said that Microsoft’s use of ARM products would help it gain market share, expanding from 10 percent to 15 percent of the mobile computing market by the end of this year. Much of the growth has been fueled by the demand for tablets, with ARM-based chips powering the majority, including Apple’s iPad 2. 

ARM expects to dominate the mobile computing market by 2015, with 50 percent market share, Brown said.