Published in AI

Investors expected Tegra chips in new Kindle tablets

by on07 September 2012



Not exactly sure why


Some investors and analysts are apparently surprised by Amazon’s decision to use Texas Instruments parts in the tablets. They apparently expected Amazon to tap Nvidia, although we are not entirely sure why.

Amazon boss Jeff Bezos claims the TI OMAP 4470 has batter bandwidth and computing power than Nvidia’s top Tegra 3 chips, although we would rather not get into this.

Evercore analyst Patrick Wang told Retuers that Amazon’s pick is a “huge surprise” and that “most people assumed Tegra 3 would be the processor in the new device." We are not sure what Wang means by “most people” as it was clear a long time ago that Nvidia would not get the contract and this is what Nvidia reps have been saying off the record for months.

Industry veteran Pat Moorhead believes Amazon should have tapped Tegra, but he notes that the company already has a history with TI.

Gamers would probably be more pleased with Tegra, but Amazon is content-centric and so are its consumers. For books, video and magazines the OMAP 4470 is more than adequate and there is really no point in jacking up the price for a handful of gaming enthusiasts.

More here.

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