2015 could be a bumper year for chip designer ARM as smartphone vendors look to make a mass transition towards 64-bit devices.
An array of big smartphone chipmakers will be leading the 64-bit charge, such as MediaTek, Qualcomm and Samsung. The use of the ARMv8 architecture, currently used in Apple's 64-bit iPhone 6, will be common among 64-bit smartphones next year. A case in point is Qualcomm's upcoming Snapdragon 810 that is based on the ARMv8 architecture.
The proliferation of 64-bit ARM designs will not just be limited to smartphones and consumer devices. Enterprise and server markets will also start to adopt 64-bit ARM designs as an alternative to Intel's hegemony. Qualcomm produced some fiery rhetoric last month about challenging Intel in datacentre and server markets. Power-efficient and cost-effective 64-bit ARMv8 designs could provide the tools for such a challenge.
Industry analyst Matt Ramsey of Canaccord Genuity believes said trend will push ARM's stock price into the $54-56 region from its current trading price of $43 on the NASDAQ. Forecasts for ARM's royalty growth estimates have been adjusted to reflect the move towards 64-bit. Ramsey predicts accelerated growth of 15 per cent for Q4 of 2014, 20 per cent for Q1 of 2015 and approximately 24 per cent for all of 2015.
