Nvidia Sees Tegra Growth In Q3, Says WSJ
By Tiernan Ray
September 6, 2011, 12:53 PM ET
blogs.barrons.com
Nvidia‘s ( NVDA) CEO Jen-Hsun Huang was kind enough to stop by Dow Jones offices this morning, and I was able to join the discussion, which was hosted by my erstwhile colleague, the Journal’s excellent chip reporter Shara Tibken.
Before I get into a few observations, I would note Shara this afternoon posted an in-depth piece with particular notes on the financial outlook.
In particular, she zeroed in on Huang’s outlook for the “Tegra” mobile chip business. That outlook was somewhat muted when Huang talked following following the company’s fiscal Q2 report last month, , as Shara pointed out. In her article, she writes that Nvidia now sees growth for Tegra this quarter:
“Our genuine conservatism was misinterpreted as absence of growth,” he said. “My sense is that we’re going to grow, and we just wanted to take a more conservative posture in the marketplace, considering some actions that our companies, their various competitors and customers are taking against each other. They’re not within my control or my ability to forecast.” Huang said he initially was cautious with his guidance on concerns about the effect the litigation and other factors would have on sales of tablet computers and smartphones. But he said patent litigation is “just life.” “At this point, it looks like it’s much ado about nothing,” he said.
Huang made the point at the opening of the discussion that Nvidia has moved away from the Intel ( INTC) chipset business that was its bread and butter for years, and is now in two growth businesses, discrete graphics processors (GPUs) and the “Tegra” line of application processors for tablets and smartphones.
Huang says the latest version of Tegra, “Tegra 3,” code-named “Kal-El,” is getting more design wins than Tegra 2, and that devices with the chip will be on the market in time for the U.S. holiday season. “This quarter or Q4? is what he said.
Huang sees Tegra being a $1 billion business next year.
Much of the discussion was about Qualcomm ( QCOM), which Huang sees as really the only viable competitor to Nvidia. He dismissed Texas Instrument ( TXN) buzz in the tablet market — it is widely regarded as a “reference device” for the forthcoming “Ice Cream Sandwich” version of Google’s ( GOOG) “Android” operating system.
“We were never in any of the reference devices,” says Huang, and yet Nvidia managed to scoop up several wins with its last Tegra processor. “I think TI is desperately trying to hold onto something,” he said, when asked about TI’s “OMAP” processor business. “I think they just don’t invest enough, and they need to decide if they’re going to invest.” Huang was referring to TI’s lack of software innovation. He says most of Nvidia’s engineering staff is focused on software as a key differentiator in the smartphone and tablet market.
Another interesting thread of the meeting was Microsoft’s ( MSFT) Windows 8, about which Huang was extremely enthusiastic. By the end of next year, he expects Nvidia’s Tegra will be in both tablets and PCs running Windows 8.
The same $199 PC that is the bottom-of-the-barrel today will be “exquisite” when running Windows 8, said Huang. It will be super light, and will have a battery running for days and days. Making the equivalent of Apple‘s ( AAPL) MacBook “Air” running on an processor based on ARM Holdings ( ARMH) designs will be trivial, Huang suggested.
Although Windows on a phone has been “tainted” at this point, and Microsoft must woo customers back, he warns one not to rule out Microsoft in any of these markets.
Huang will be speaking later today at the Citigroup technology conference in Manhattan, shortly after 4 pm. So be sure to keep an eye or an ear out for that.
And in case you were wondering, Huang uses primarily a Samsung “Galaxy R” smartphone, running on Tegra, of course.
Nvidia shares today are down 21 cents, or 1.6%, at $12.71.
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After hours update:
Nvidia posts stronger-than-expected FY13 outlook
By Benjamin Pimentel
marketwatch.com
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) - Nvidia Corp. NVDA +6.22% on Tuesday said it expects revenue for its fiscal year 2013, which begins Jan. 30, 2012, to be in the range of $4.7 billion to $5 billion. Analysts had expected Nvidia to report sales of $4.45 billion. Shares of Nvidia were up more than 5% in after-hours trading
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