Present day netbooks are stripped down versions of mainstream notebooks that can merely offer basic computing at a lower price point, claims Graham Budd, the chief operating officer (COO) of ARM Holdings plc. Instead, he wants to extend this market with ARM-based netbooks, smartbooks and other diverse internet-connected mobile computing devices. He feels there is a huge market in a country like India, which is vastly under-penetrated in PCs, but has around 45% penetration of mobile phones.

Aiming to challenge to Intel?s products, ARM is betting big on the opportunity in India with lower price points, lesser by one-third of the original price with better processing efficiencies, and is targeting both urban and rural markets. Budd was appointed COO of the UK-based firm in July 2008. Prior to this, he was executive vice-president and general manager of the company?s processor division from July 2005. He joined ARM in 1992 as a VLSI design engineer and led the development of several of ARM?s early system-on-chip designs. Since then he has held a number of engineering, marketing and operations leadership roles. As COO, Budd is responsible for day-to-day execution of the business and getting the right balance of R&D investment to enable future growth. In a recent interaction with BV Mahalakshmi, Budd details the company?s plans to tap the Indian market. Excerpts:

How are ARM?s processors being received in India currently?

ARM?s processors are very power efficient, while at the same time delivering the performance required for a rich internet experience on the next generation of smart mobile computing devices. Due to the low power consum- ption, these devices do not need a fan and can be very thin and lightweight. ARM?s licensing business model encourages diversity and innovation, as has been seen in the mobile handset market. Opportunities for computing in education, social media and business applications in India will benefit from the choice and flexibility, enabled by low power solutions from the ARM partnership, because OEMs can choose the silicon best suited to the functionality, usage model and price points for specific market needs.

What is the market size for notebook PCs in India and the segment which the company would be addressing?

As per IDC India?s report of the July-September 2009 quarter, notebook PCs crossed 7,00,000 units for the first time ever in India. Notebook sales also grew at 46.4% and the Indian PC market grew at 24% over the previous quarter. About 30,000 netbooks were sold in India in 2008.

As the de facto architecture that powers more than 90% of mobile phones globally, ARM?s low-power, high-performance solutions are a natural fit for new mobile computing devices, sitting between the notebook and smartphone segments, whose design hinges on long battery life, easy portability and full, rich internet applications with innovative larger-screen form factors and usage models. This space includes the current netbook market, also covering devices such as smartbooks, tablets and ebooks.

The ARM Cortex-A8 processor used in many of these upcoming devices scales from 600 MHz to greater than 1 GHz, making it ideal for power-optimised mobile devices. Some of these devices will be introduced by OEMs in the first half of 2010.

How many ARM-based products would be launched in the first half of 2010?

For the full range of mobile computing devices, from tablets and ebooks to netbooks, we expect more than 15 ARM-based devices to be launched in the first half of 2010.

Do you expect this to result in a price war with Intel?

Intel will be competing with the entire ARM partnership, a community of over 200 silicon vendors who produce a range of silicon solutions across a spectrum of price points. The choice of solutions enables OEMs to differentiate, determining the tradeoffs most suitable for their products. Without a one-size-fits-all, one-silicon vendor strategy, OEMs and software vendors are fully empowered to choose the appropriate trade-offs based on end customer value, thereby eliminating unnecessary functionality and reducing overall system cost.

Are you tapping the Indian academic community for embedded design services?

With proliferation of embedded devices in day-to-day life, from a toaster to automobiles to high-end applications in health care, the usage of embedded devices will be far more significant than what we can envisage today. It is natural that embedded design services will be an important focus area for semiconductor companies.

We believe embedded design services are expected to significantly evolve in the coming years. Thanks to its quality and growing base of design engineers, India will have a major role to play.

It is important for university students to be well versed in working with relevant, up-to-date technology to ensure that their skills are suitable for industry on graduation.

Collaboration between the industry and academia is very important. One of the key focus in ARM?s university programme is embedded systems development, and we are happy to support India?s talent through this programme. ARM is working with universities across India. Under our university programme, in late 2008, ARM donated high-end ARM development boards and Keil software to JSS College, Bangalore.

ARM designers are also involved in training JSS College engineering students on embedded design under this initiative. One of our earlier initiatives on embedded design was in January 2007, when we provided about 250 ARM7 boards to VTU and its affiliated colleges, and trained faculties of engineering colleges affiliated to the VTU in Karnataka. We have worked closely with the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (CDAC), helping to develop the diploma in embedded design course, which has about 500 students admitted every six months.

What are the opportunities for netbook PCs in India?

The netbooks that we are seeing in the market today are stripped down versions of mainstream notebooks that can offer basic computing at a lower price point.

This market is now being extended by the emergence of ARM-based netbooks, smartbooks and other diverse internet-connected mobile computing devices, for which there is a huge market in a country like India. The market here is vastly under-penetrated in PCs, but has around 45% penetration of mobile phones. It offers a diverse consumer profile ranging from enterprise users, to home consumers, to price-conscious consumers, to users in rural areas who may require specific usage applications only.

For an emerging economy such as India (which grew at 7.9% in the second quarter of the current fiscal), expanding internet connectivity to areas beyond metros will be of paramount importance for sustained growth and holistic development. As a result, it is natural to expect that the role of information and communication technologies (ICT) in education, banking, health care, retail, and enterprise will increase significantly. The availability of ARM-based netbooks and other ARM-based smart mobile computing devices, with their advantage of offering full internet experience and high performance at low power and low cost, will certainly help to drive this increase.

ARM does not directly manufacture end products?OEMs/semiconductor companies making the end-product will be better-placed to respond regarding any specific plans for tier-II rural segments.