Tegra revenue down 48% Y/Y

[Homeles]

Jen-Hsun Huang would never sell his company, unless he was still in control.

 

[Bateluer]

Well, Tegra 4 was a massive flop. I don't mean to imply that I have faith that Nvidia will rule the mobile industry or anything, but anything would be an improvement on Tegra 4, as long as they can deliver on time. Tegra 4 came out far too late to be relevant.

When you get right down to it, every Tegra part has been a flop; arriving late, missing features, lower than promised clocks and performance, higher power usage, etc.

 

[5150Joker]

Jen-Hsun Huang would never sell his company, unless he was still in control.

Does Jen Hsun have majority share control? If not then Intel could win over shareholders and take over. Personally I think the most likely candidate is Samsung.

 

[Homeles]

When you get right down to it, every Tegra part has been a flop; arriving late, missing features, lower than promised clocks and performance, higher power usage, etc.

Can't say I've been a fan.

 

[AnandThenMan]

I give Nvidia credit for persistence, but they seem to take 2 steps back and one step forward with Tegra. As for a buyout of Nvidia, as long as Jensen is alive I don't see it ever happening.

 

[5150Joker]

Again, how could Jen Hsun block a takeover?

 

[Gikaseixas]

I bet he has heavy influence in the board decision making. That alone goes a long way.

Corporations have the example of Apple to follow. A strong leader can clearly make a difference.

 

[monstercameron]

I bet he has heavy influence in the board decision making. That alone goes a long way.

Corporations have the example of Apple to follow. A strong leader can clearly make a difference.

yeah, look at t-mobile.

 

[AnandThenMan]

Again, how could Jen Hsun block a takeover?

Possibly could not prevent a hostile takeover, have not looked at the details to be honest.

 

[sontin]

When you get right down to it, every Tegra part has been a flop; arriving late, missing features, lower than promised clocks and performance, higher power usage, etc.

And yet they are still on the market unlike TI and other companies which left the market...

 

[AnandThenMan]

And yet they are still on the market unlike TI and other companies which left the market...

Staying in a market that is a money sink hole for said company is not always the best strategy.

 

[AtenRa]

Like Intel, NV also can afford to loose money in the Mobile. Both are hopping they can make a profit from the mobile in the near future. Well, actually they both see the Mobile as the only future.
And they are not the only ones.

 

[sontin]

Staying in a market that is a money sink hole for said company is not always the best strategy.

So, you think AMD should leave the CPU and GPU business, because they make no money anymore? :hmm:

It's an investment. It's not a sprint. And it's the market with the biggest growth potential. Companies only need to find a niche and they can make more money than nearly in other IT sectors.

 

[AnandThenMan]

So, you think AMD should leave the CPU and GPU business, because they make no money anymore? :hmm:

If we apply your logic, then yes AMD should keep doing exactly what they are doing. But AMD is slowly moving into the black and adapting their strategy, Nvidia is moving backwards with Tegra. Put another way, if Nvidia only had Tegra products they would be in serious trouble.

 

[sontin]

Have you ever looked at AMD's sheets? Their CPU business is moving backwards since two years. If you applied your logic AMD would need to leave the market because they have been loosing money.

 

[AnandThenMan]

This thread is not about AMD.

 

[NTMBK]

So, you think AMD should leave the CPU and GPU business, because they make no money anymore? :hmm:

It's an investment. It's not a sprint. And it's the market with the biggest growth potential. Companies only need to find a niche and they can make more money than nearly in other IT sectors.

AMD was back in profit in 4Q13. But hey, if they can't turn around the big core APUs in Excavator, maybe they should ditch them and stick to small core and GPUs. 4 generations of product failure should be enough to make anyone rethink their plans... although apparently NVidia didn't get that memo.

 

[mrmt]

AMD was back in profit in 4Q13. But hey, if they can't turn around the big core APUs in Excavator, maybe they should ditch them and stick to small core and GPUs. 4 generations of product failure should be enough to make anyone rethink their plans... although apparently NVidia didn't get that memo.

Every company out there is making the bulk of their money either by selling IP or by developing and selling SoCs, Nvidia is an exception since they design dGPU cards for the PC market. But with SoCs becoming mainstream on the PC market it's a matter of time until they no longer can make much money on this market. With that in mind, what choice do they have except for try to carve a niche for their own SoC or die trying? Because they won't make as an IP seller. nobody lined up for their IP after they announced they would license it.

 

[Mondozei]

Everyone is once again saying that K1 will save the day.

Why?

1. K1 still does not have an integrated LTE modem, for a 2014 SoC. That is a shanda.

2. K1 probably has best-in-class GPU, but the GPU is 1/12th of the SoC. Where is Nvidia on the other stuff? Either no better or worse and often have worse economy of scale.

3. K1 with Denver will be interesting but that is still 10-12 months away. And then it will have to compete with Qualcomm 900 series. Will it have integrated LTE then?

Conclusion: K1 saving the day sounds plausible in the abstract but tell me how the story can pan out realistically. Don't blame the competition, NV dropped the ball on numerous occassions. Not having integrated LTE in 2014 is beyond bad, it is atrocious.

 

[NTMBK]

Every company out there is making the bulk of their money either by selling IP or by developing and selling SoCs, Nvidia is an exception since they design dGPU cards for the PC market. But with SoCs becoming mainstream on the PC market it's a matter of time until they no longer can make much money on this market. With that in mind, what choice do they have except for try to carve a niche for their own SoC or die trying? Because they won't make as an IP seller. nobody lined up for their IP after they announced they would license it.

If they were serious about selling their IP then they wouldn't be announcing it in a press conference, they would be having lots of quiet back room meetings with big SoC vendors and coming to some agreement. That announcement was meant for precisely one audience- Wall Street.

And yes, "die trying" is certainly a possibility. But their current approach is failing hard.

 

[Atreidin]

When you get right down to it, every Tegra part has been a flop; arriving late, missing features, lower than promised clocks and performance, higher power usage, etc.

And we always see the same Nvidia cheerleaders talking about how things will get better and Nvidia will dominate everyone. Every time a new Tegra thread comes up I think, "Wait, I've read this before."

 

[mrmt]

If they were serious about selling their IP then they wouldn't be announcing it in a press conference, they would be having lots of quiet back room meetings with big SoC vendors and coming to some agreement. That announcement was meant for precisely one audience- Wall Street.

Or an indicative that they tried and failed back room meetings but decided to announce it to the financial community anyway. Either way, I think we can agree that they don't have much prospects in becoming the next Qualcomm or the next Imagination.

And yes, "die trying" is certainly a possibility. But their current approach is failing hard.

No discussion here, but they don't have any other choice. Much like Intel doesn't have in keeping investing on nodes because they can't compete on price and service with TSMC, and AMD in keep pushing their failed CMT designs because they have the WSA albatross around their neck.

Whatever markets you can think for Nvidia outside of the SoC realm would mean a much smaller company and much angrier shareholders. It wasn't for nothing that they were pushing the FTC and Intel to get a x86 license, and it wasn't for nothing that they entered the ARM market, despite the cut-throat competition.

 

[Genx87]

They can't just pour money down this sinkhole indefinitely.

Sure they can. AMD has been doing it for decades in the x86 market.

 

[Genx87]

Staying in a market that is a money sink hole for said company is not always the best strategy.

True however the pot o gold at the end of the rainbow is pretty large. Nvidia will continue until they have success or die trying, or some other emerging market opens up.

 

[mrmt]

Sure they can. AMD has been doing it for decades in the x86 market.

No, they can't. The x86 market was always a very small club with one big gorilla on the top of it, and there was always some significant market bracket that Intel wasn't interested on it. So when AMD missed their targeted parameters, either costs, scope or time to market they could always find a market bracket to dump their products with enough profitability to keep the company running until the next product.

The mobile ARM market is a different beast. You have Qualcomm at the top, but you also have Mediatek, Rockchip which is built around the idea of lean cost structure, and some vertically integrated manufacturers like Samsung and Apple. Nvidia cannot afford to miss targeted parameters there, because if they don't reach, let's say, the performance target they can't dump chips for cheap, because there's mediatek and others that excel on costs. They can't postpone the launch date, otherwise they fall out from the pack. It's a much less forgiving market than x86.