ARM remains unfazed despite growing only 2 percent in Q2 and projects as many as 1.9 billion sold devices by 2018.

In spite of a relatively disappointing quarter with only 2 percent growth, ARM’s CEO Simon Segars is optimistic that growth will pick up in Q3 and beyond. He noted that licensing for ARM is cyclical, typically between 18 and 24 months, and Q2 was the bottom of the cycle. They project an 11 percent CAGR for overall smartphone sales through 2018, expecting as many as 1.9 billion devices to be sold in that year.

Nevertheless, increasing complexity and smaller feature sizes will be a challenge. As Segars noted:

At 20nm, scaling isn’t what it was historically, thus the price per transistor hasn’t been on the same curve as it was in the past decade. Somewhere along the supply chain someone will pay for it. I think we will see the number people adopting 20nm will be low compared to past nodes.

More people will stay on 28nm and innovate more in design. Foundries will have more variants of 28nm, and there is a big investment in next generation transistor technology to give more benefits for the cost. I think we are in a transition period in which the industry is interested in getting to FinFETs as soon as possible.

For more information, and further commentary from ARM and Segers, the full article is available on EE Times.

See a comparison table of Android tablet suppliers on GlobalSources.com