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They've never really been in the business of "making things" as end-users would see it. They've designed chips and reference PCBs, but they contract outside fou
by sho_hn 13y ago
They've never really been in the business of "making things" as end-users would see it. They've designed chips and reference PCBs, but they contract outside foundries for manufacturing (unlike, say, Intel, who have their own fabs) and the silicon goes to retail partners like ASUS and Gainward and many others to actually put into the channel (with minor downstream customization like custom heatsink designs). They've only recently actually sold some things directly to customers, like the SHIELD gaming handheld.
- Eyght 13y agoIt will be interesting to see if anyone will use their GPU's for a product that directly competes with the SHIELD.
- sho_hn 13y agoI'd say SHIELD is pretty much a PR effort to incite others to do exactly that - it creates buzz around the virtues of nVidia's mobile tech for gaming, and so could make licensing nVidia GPU IP an attractive selling point. I don't think nVidia expects SHIELD to be a high-volume seller on its own, it's pretty niche form factor-wise. This is also why you have a bunch of graphically intense games on the Play store which are Tegra-exclusives, from developers who cut a deal with nVidia. For example Arma Tactics.
- abuzzooz 13y agoTo be fair, NVIDIA tried to sell a couple of products directly to end consumers before. For example they sold a dual tv tuner card a few years ago (http://www.nvidia.com/page/dualtvmce.html http://www.nvidia.com/page/dualtvmce.html), but it didn't go too well and was discontinued. These were always half-hearted attempts at testing the waters. NVIDIA never really put too much effort into it.