ARM reported a 16 percent rise in pretax profit in the fourth quarter as its technology is found in most of smartphones and tablets.

The Cambridge-based group reported pretax profit of 80 million pounds ($125.9 million) on revenue of 164.2 million pounds.

During Q4, 36 processor licenses signed for a broad range of applications, from smartphones and mobile computers to medical devices and microcontrollers. Momentum continued in computing, servers and networking applications with the signing of two ARMv8 architecture licenses, six ARMv8 processor licenses and three ARM Cortex-A15 processor licenses, the company said. Shippments of chips based on ARM processor technology reached the 2.5 billion, while processor royalty revenue grew 21% year-on-year, driven by strong growth in the group's Cortex-A and Mali-based chips. ARM also licenced its Mali graphics processor IP to 7 companies, and in total 5 physical IP based POP IP products were licensed.

"ARM has seen good revenue and earnings growth throughout 2012. Customers are developing products to meet the needs of the post PC era and are driving demand for ARM's most advanced technology. In Q4 we again saw influential market-leaders demonstrating their commitment to ARM technology by licensing our latest products. Royalty revenue has also grown strongly during Q4 underpinned by ARM?s market share gains and an increased royalty percentage from Cortex-A class processors being deployed into smartphones and tablets," said Warren East, ARM Chief Executive Officer.

"2013 brings exciting opportunities and challenges as ARM enters competitive new markets where we are well positioned to succeed with leading technology, an innovative business model and a thriving ecosystem of partners," he added.