Another David rises

Nvidia Tegra’s success in the tablet market, which is expected to cross 250 million units by 2015, is the perfect opportunity for the chip-maker to compete with Intel

Who would have thought that Nvidia would enter the microprocessor market and give Intel a run for its money? That’s exactly what happened with Nvidia’s processor Tegra which has
captured 50 percent of the 60 million tablet market globally within a span of 12 months.
With the market expected to cross 250 million tablets by 2015, Nvidia could have hit a goldmine and the perfect opportunity to compete with the market leader.

Intel, which in 2008 had announced its mobile Internet device strategy when it launched the Atom processor platform, failed to garner much support for its offering despite its dominant position in the PC processor market. The company’s Oak Trail and Cedar Trail generation of Atom processors for the tablet market have found little support.

Intel is not giving up, and has announced that in 2012 it will launch a new range with a much lower TDP with an Atom series (codenamed Saltwell) which would be suited for the tablet market.

But analysts feel that with Nvidia already making available the quad-core Kal-El processor, and also unveiling a roadmap called the SuperHero series, there’s a lot of catching up that Intel needs to do.

What could also have Intel worried is that Nvidia is slowly moving Tegra into the PC market. Indeed, Toshiba, Asus, Acer and Samsung have all announced Tegra 3-based notebooks and netbooks, and Toshiba has actually been shipping a model in India since the past six months. With Tegra inside.