ARM Holdings (ARMH) Disrupts Intel (INTC) Semi Business Model

September 28, 2012

ARM Holdings (ARMH) is putting Moore’s Law to the side, and it is playing in cheap, widespread technology that doesn’t require compatibility with legacy support for older PC platforms, lowering end costs and not engaging semiconductor giants like Intel Corporation (INTC) in the wars to build larger and more sophisticated fabs, says Hans Mosesmann, Managing Director, Equity Research, at Raymond James & Associates, Inc.

ARM is different. Its model is more formidable because it licenses very, very cheaply, very good technology to many players, and it has been widely adopted in the mobile space and widely adopted in digital consumer and the embedded markets, hard disk drives, and now with Microsoft (MSFT) Windows 8 or the RT version of Windows 8, ARM is for the first time going to have an entry into mainstream computing and the PC market,” Mosesmann said.

Companies like Intel are expected to have a difficult time competing against the low-cost ARM solutions. New platforms like Windows RT are not expected to support legacy software packages, Mosesmann says. This could result in a shift in expectation from the consumer and enterprise side.

“By selling its chips to partners, like NVIDIA (NVDA), Qualcomm (QCOM), Texas Instruments (TXN), and over time other ARM partners like Broadcom (BRCM) and Marvell (MRVL) will be able to sell in the $20, $25 processors that do just a fine job at running Windows as they do today with running Android or running iOS from Apple (AAPL),” Mosesmann says.