Arm Holdings (ARMH) Challenging Intel (INTC) with Smartphone Chips

There's one advantage relative upstart Arm Holdings (NASDAQ:ARMH) has on chip giant Intel Corp. (NASDAQ:INTC) in the smartphone segment, and that is battery life.

Since that's the name of the game for smartphones, Arm has a foothold in the fastest growing segment of the chip market, with Intel and others scrambling to catch up.

ARM Holdings PLC, is a British microprocessor firm founded 21 years ago in a turkey barn. While still relatively small, ARM is upending the chip business, posing perhaps the most nettlesome challenge yet to giant Intel Corp, says the Wall Street Journal.

"ARM's chips have become the most popular standard for cellphones and tablets and are found in hundreds of millions of other devices, from digital cameras to disk drives. Its market share in handsets is more than 90%, and its stock has tripled over the past 15 months.

"ARM's growing cachet—and the threat it poses to Intel—was on display March 2, when Apple CEO Steve Jobs presented the iPad 2 to journalists and technophiles. He emphasized how the tablet's processor—which is based on ARM technology—is twice as fast as the previous one, all the while keeping battery life at an impressive 10 hours."

Arm Holdings closed Wednesday at $24.40, down $0.52, or 2.09 percent. Intel closed at $19.81, falling $0.37, or 1.85 percent.