Proving that some British companies can get things right, this week ARM has posted its second quarter results and smashed market expectations.

Highlights include record pre-tax profits of £43.5m, up 167 per cent on Q2 2009, and revenue which shot up 54 per cent to £100m. Meanwhile operating margins leaped up from 24.7 per cent to a hugely impressive 42.7 per cent.

“We are pleased to report strong underlying revenue and profit performance in the first half, in improved trading conditions compared with one year ago,” announced ARM CEO Warren East (pictured). “Our strategy remains on …

ABI Research this week said that global shipments of netbook computers would total about 60 million this year and will be nearly double that number in 2013. There’s reason to think that even that optimistic assessment is conservative. Here’s a few reasons why:

1. Emerging markets, most notably India and China, with a combined wireless user base of well over one billion, will help drive netbook growth as 3G wireless technology sees more uptake.
2. Google’s Chrome OS is due out by year’s end. As the site Chromeossite.com points out, the vast majority of …

The problem with being a poster boy is it comes with a great deal of expectation…

The first review has come in for Toshiba’s exciting ‘AC100′ smartbook, and it has been found wanting. Russian site Hi-tech.mail.ru was the seemingly lucky beneficiary of the production ready sample, but was left unimpressed after finding core hardware and software shortcomings.

Most pertinent among these were the absence of Google Marketplace – a common problem with smartbooks running a custom Android build – and the use of a mobile browser, described as “archaic” for a desktop platform. …

If touchscreen iPad imitations are bound to steamroller traditional keyboard laptops, India’s human resource development office is ready with its Sakshat to give iPad a run for its money.  The Linux-based Sakshat, introduced July 23, is slated to reach $35 production costs by 2011, and Development Minister Kapil Sibal is confident the Sakshat eventually can be manufactured for $20 – some in the ministry are aiming at $10, though there was some dispute over whether a viable touchscreen tablet can move below a $20 bill of materials.

India has promoted an internal development …

Microsoft Corp. must be worried about all the analyst chatter regarding its possible obsolescence in a handheld-centric world.  The company expanded its pact with ARM Holdings in mid-July, moving from a Windows Embedded port with roots dating back to 1997, to a broad-based R&D effort involving the ARM instruction set and architecture, generating speculation that it would soon offer versions of Windows 7 and Windows Phone 7 for ARM binaries.

And where is the surprise there?  The very phrase “Wintel” assumes a commonality of purpose between Intel and Microsoft …

Have death throes ever been more prolonged than this?

Following a big build up earlier this year the HP Slate was seemingly dropped as the company’s $1.2-bn outlay for Palm saw it continually reiterate its love for all things webOS. So imagine our surprise when it turns out the Windows 7-based Slate is still alive… just.

This week the tablet accidentally turned up on HP’s site (web cache) leading to an HP spokesperson telling Engadget the product is ”in customer evaluations now and will make a …

After disappointing investors for two consecutive quarters, Qualcomm appears to have turned the tide.

Qualcomm shares were trading up nearly eight percent on Thursday morning, a day after the company reported a four percent uptick in third fiscal quarter profit. Revenue declined two percent, a shallower drop than many analysts predicted. Qualcomm also raised the low end of fourth quarter revenue guidance, giving shareholders hope that the company will deliver on expectations that, in the words of Bill Kreher of Edward Jones, it will be “the primary beneficiary of the shift to smartphones.”

At …

It’s one of the great mysteries of the technology sector that ARM chipsets can be found in everything from microwaves and trainers to smartbooks and smartphones, yet the brand remains largely out of public consciousness. This looks set to change…
Today the 20 year old British company has announced a broad long-term manufacturing agreement with TSMC, the world’s largest dedicated independent semiconductor foundry. The deal means ARM will now have the resources to perform far higher levels of testing and optimization upon its designs before it ships them out to licensees such as …

ABI Research and iSuppli certainly agree on one factor: Everyone loves the iPad, and OEMs copying the touch-sensitive tablet form factor are following along in its wake. Some of the research results released in mid-July fall into the “well, duh” category, but associated apocryphal tales are occasionally disturbing. The iPad and tablet lookalikes make great readers and Web browsers, but why are some corporate IT departments canceling all laptop orders in favor of universal standardization on the iPad?  The soft keypad has not yet shown itself to be a useful tool for document creation.

But I digress.  …