Nvidia Wants To Be Inside Your Phone

I don't think I've ever truly been able to hid my affinity for Nvidia. From the first moment I installed an Nvidia graphics card on my first Windows machine to the point when I started running dual 8800's in SLI, I've been smitten by their great performance and support. And to hear this news from the graphics chip giant, that they are getting into the cell phone game, is simply music to my ears!

Nvidia announced the production of their new APX 2500, a graphics chip designed solely for the handheld market. Setting its aims squarely on the cell phone market, Nvidia claims that this new processor can produce 750MHz and can render 720p video! No other mobile gadget graphics processor can currently output like this little genie, and it seems that Nvidia is banking on this power and their brand recognition to get themselves into the fairly clogged mobile phone market.

There's good news/bad news here though. The good news is that Nvidia is part of the Open Handset Alliance. The bad news is that they are currently partnered with Microsoft and their Windows Mobile platform. To be fair, they are "in talks" with other manufactures and developers, but MS is the only one officially announced at this moment. Also, they don't plan to launch the chip with the current WinMo OS, opting to wait for the next version (supposedly, Microsoft is aiming their new Mobile OS at a wider audience than just the business market).

This does make me interested in the possibilities though. What if they teamed up with Sony Erricson to make phones that have similar capability as the PSP, being able to rip a version of your Blu-Ray movie to your phone for on-the-go viewing? And the thought of real games on my phone also excite me. Maybe a Media Center phone? All of this speculation is getting me a tad bit excited, so I'll leave it for now, but suffice it to say I'm a bit excited for the possibilities.

When you combine this announcement with their recent announcement of their laptop friendly processors, you start to get the picture that Nvidia is becoming more and more interested in the mobile computing market in general. Is this a sign that the market is moving away from traditional desktop media consumption to more mobile amusement, or is it just another company that is trying to capitalize on the current trend?

[via: Coolest Gadgest]