The chief executive of Arm has given the strongest hint yet that the company's technology is inside Apple's iPad.

The Cambridge-based technology group - whose microchip designs are to be found in more than nine out of every 10 mobile phones sold across the world - already has chips in the iPhone and iPod. That has led intense speculation that Apple's A4 chip, which powers the iPad, incorporates an Arm Cortex-A9 MPCore - the same processor as Qualcomm's Snapdragon chip, which powers Google's Nexus One.

In an interview with the Guardian, Arm's chief executive, Warren East, hinted that the mystery would soon be over.

"I would doubt whether anybody other than Apple has taken the iPad to bits yet," he said. "But in a month or so it will be available and somebody other than Apple will take it to bits - and then we will know."

Famously coy about the destination of the company's technology, East hinted that the iPad was powered by Arm designs – but refused to confirm outright that the A4 chip is based on the company's intellectual property.

"I have seen all the same speculation that you have seen and I can point out the fact that they [Apple] publicised the fact that it runs Apple iPhone and iPod Touch applications straight off and from that you can do some inferring," he teased.

"But I cannot possibly confirm anything."

When a new gadget is released, analysts can be relied upon to pull it apart and spot the firm's handiwork. They have yet to get their hands on an iPad, however.

There had been concerns that Apple's $275m (£148m) acquisition of Californian chip designer PA Semi in 2008 would see Arm slowly pushed out of Apple's products.

But the A4 chip - the first piece of silicon to emerge since that takeover - suggests there is still a very definite role for Arm to play.

East was speaking after the company announced a better than expected set of fourth quarter results.

It has benefited from the boom in sales of smartphones from the likes of Apple, Nokia and RIM, maker of the BlackBerry. As these devices have become more complex, meanwhile, Arm has been able to install more of its chip designs in individual gadgets - covering everything from the handset's microprocessor to Wi-Fi, Bluetooth or GPS connections.

While revenues in the three months to end December were down 10%, at £85.2m, that was a better performance than the City had predicted and a lot better than the 20% drop recorded by some of its rivals.

In the quarter, the company sold a record 1.3 billion chips. Annual sales of £305m were up 2%, while profits of £96.8m were down 4%.

In its results statement, ARM said it is generally anticipated that the semiconductor industry will see improving conditions in 2010 compared to 2009, but warned that "the rate of improvement is still unclear as it will be influenced by consumer confidence and the broader macro-economic environment".

East cautioned that the industry's expectations for growth of 15% to 20% this year, may be over-optimistic. His own prediction is for Arm to grow at 13%, with the rest of the industry seeing more modest growth.