Nvidia's Tegra chips have been conspicuously absent on smartphones this year, but the company is hoping to bounce back with Tegra 4i-powered smartphones in early 2014.
Tegra 4i has an integrated 4G LTE modem that should make it more power efficient, and therefore more attractive to phone makers and wireless carriers. In an earnings call, Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang said the chip has been certified for AT&T's network, and the first Tegra 4i smartphones should launch no later than the second quarter.
This year, Nvidia has found itself out of the smartphone game among high-end handsets. Rival Qualcomm has proven far more popular, with its Snapdragon chips featured in the Samsung Galaxy S4 (U.S. edition), HTC One, LG G2, Google Nexus 5 and Nokia Lumia 1020, among others. Tegra revenue still doubled last quarter, but largely because of tablets, convertible devices and micro-consoles such as Ouya.
The idea of Nvidia Tegra on a smartphone is intriguing as the company positions itself as the best choice for gaming. Nvidia likes to tout Tegra 4's unique visual effects, and often works with developers to optimize their mobile games for the processor. The Nvidia Shield handheld is meant to be a showcase for Tegra 4's capabilities.
To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
ConversionConversion EmoticonEmoticon