Next-gen smartphones set to land in 2012

ARM believes A15-powered smartphones will land in 2012
ARM believes A15-powered smartphones will land in 2012

ARM is predicting that mobile phones powered by its new high end Cortex A15 will be on sale two years after the chip was announced.

Eric Schorn, VP of marketing for ARM's processor division, told TechRadar that the two year time frame was based on past timelines:

"We should be seeing [ARM Cortex A15-powered] smartphones by the tail end of 2012, inside handsets on the store shelves.

"Essentially we're looking at a two year time frame from when we first announce [the A15] and past releases usually indicate a two to three year time frame."

Enhance!

He also said that ARM is hoping to have chips based on its Cortex A9 dual-core architecture on the shop floors before Christmas, meaning we could see such things from the likes of the HTC Desire HD.

However, the new Cortex A15 won't be running at 2.5GHz, despite that being possible with the new chips, as Schorn said this would only be for larger devices like cell towers where cooling was less of an issue:

"With mobile phones, there's a different trade off in operating frequency due to the battery life, so they [mobile phones] are not quite in that 2.5GHz category.

"However, the users will experience a much faster experience, one that's quicker, more efficient and able to surf the web for longer."

Gareth Beavis
Formerly Global Editor in Chief

Gareth has been part of the consumer technology world in a career spanning three decades. He started life as a staff writer on the fledgling TechRadar, and has grown with the site (primarily as phones, tablets and wearables editor) until becoming Global Editor in Chief in 2018. Gareth has written over 4,000 articles for TechRadar, has contributed expert insight to a number of other publications, chaired panels on zeitgeist technologies, presented at the Gadget Show Live as well as representing the brand on TV and radio for multiple channels including Sky, BBC, ITV and Al-Jazeera. Passionate about fitness, he can bore anyone rigid about stress management, sleep tracking, heart rate variance as well as bemoaning something about the latest iPhone, Galaxy or OLED TV.