With chips for just about every mobile device out there, ARM thoroughly dominates its market, powering of the world's mobile handsets and more than a quarter of all electronic devices.

It's not hard to see why, either. The relatively simple, low-power and low-cost chips provide excellent performance for such devices while enabling manufacturers to keep costs and power needs attractively low. With versions created by licensees including Apple, Samsung and Qualcomm, ARM is essentially a diverse army with a broad presence throughout the mobile arena.

As a testament to the architecture's continuing dominance, in fact, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company-- which produces ARM chips for a variety of companies--is planning targeting Apple's iPhone and iPad, in particular. Intel's chip this year, meanwhile, even as Samsung's has grown, Gartner just reported.

It won't be long, I expect, before ARM chips become commonplace in PCs and even as well, particularly given the growing popularity of Ubuntu and other distributions, which don't require the expensive horsepower that does.

End of a Monopoly