Nvidia's Tegra mobile chip business hits a wall with growth
Chief Executive Jen-Hsun Huang says the business won't grow this year because the graphics chipmaker pushed out the release of Tegra 4 by a quarter to get its LTE ready.

The market has pretty high hopes for Nvidia's Tegra mobile chip business, but this year is shaping up to be a disappointment.
Chief Executive Jen-Hsun Huang said that while Tegra has been growing "very quickly," the business will be "about flat" this year. That's because Nvidia pushed back the launch of its Tegra 4 chip by a quarter in order to ready its 4G LTE capabilities, he said. The company introduced Tegra 4 at the Consumer Electronics Show in January and then launched its chip that integrates LTE with its app processor,Tegra 4i, a month later.
Nvidia traditionally has been known for making graphics processing units found in computers and game consoles, but the company has taken steps to expand its customer base. It has been counting on its Tegra mobile chip to help offset weakness in its core PC market, but so far, it hasn't been enough. Tegra is showing up in many tablets, including the Microsoft Surface RT, but its presence in smartphones is minimal.
Many analysts have been expecting Tegra to show little, if any, growth this year. While Nvidia is blaming the weakness on its chip release schedule, tougher competition likely also plays a role. Qualcomm, the dominant chip provider for smartphones, has been gaining more traction in tablets while Nvidia's smartphone push hasn't been as quick as hoped.
Huang said today that Tegra is the future of Nvidia, and eventually, every chip the company makes will be a Tegra.
"Tegra is an essential future of our company," Huang said. "It is much much more than smartphones. It is everything in computing for us."
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