Intel has also helped to extend a variety of operating systems, such as Google's Honeycomb, to work on its x86 Oak Trail tablets. The upcoming Windows OS will also work on both Atom and ARM processors, so the competition there will be on even ground, Gold said.

"It's not that the ARM vendors ... won't be successful. It's that they now have a formidable competitor with attractive products and huge manufacturing capability," Gold wrote.

As Intel draws closer, chip makers that license ARM processors are also improving performance while reducing power consumption, Insight 64's Brookwood said.

ARM has already announced the Cortex-A15 chip design, which is faster and more power-efficient than its predecessor, the Cortex-A9. Qualcomm, which makes the Snapdragon processor, and Nvidia, which offers the Tegra processor, will also offer chips made with 28-nm processes by early next year.

ARM processors are designed with smartphones in mind, which gives the platform an architectural advantage to cut power consumption, Brookwood said. Intel's chip designs originate from PCs, and the company may find it difficult to reach deep down to cut lower levels of power consumption.