Mobile devices are no longer just about phones, and there is a burgeoning range of gadgets, many with wireless connections embedded (or certainly Wi-Fi), each optimized for a different application or behaviour. Gaming machines, ebook readers and wireless attached music players like iPod Touch are examples of specialized mobile products that are doing as much to drive consumption of digital content on the move, as the strong web experience of more general purpose smartphones. Many are starting to behave like an iPod or high end smartphone, acquiring dedicated content stores and even an embedded cellular connection.
This may well be the future for Microsoft Zune, which is expected to broaden its position in the complex content chain by getting a full apps platform, complementing the existing Zune Marketplace store as Apple has iTunes and App Store. ‘The Zune experience is growing beyond a music player in the United States,’ Chris Stephenson, a senior executive at Microsoft, said in May.
And these new device types also provide new opportunities for mobile chipmakers, with graphics specialist Nvidia a good example. It has struggled to make an impact on the mainstream smartphone market since it entered last year, though it promises several big name deals in late 2009 or early 2010, following on from early contracts with ODMs. Now it has scored what may prove to be its breakthrough deal in the mobile environment, with its Tegra processor turning up in the new Zune HD.
Both Microsoft and Nvidia have a lot riding on Zune HD, the high definition version of the media player, which has struggled to dent the dominance of the iPod. As well as built-in HD radio and 720p HD video, Microsoft is getting aggressive on pricing versus Apple. And like iPod Touch, the new gadget will have Wi-Fi and a bright OLED touchscreen and will come in five colors. It will ship in the US on September 15, though plans for other markets have not been revealed. It will cost $219.99 for a 16Gb version and $289.99 for the 32Gb model, undercutting the iPod Touch players, at $299 and $399 respectively.
As well as trying to steal some attention from Apple and other mobile music firms, Microsoft sees Zune as part of its bid to dominate the entire content chain, across all four screens (TVs, phones, mobiles and PCs). ‘Zune’s international expansion starts with video on Xbox Live; eventually we’ll offer the full digital entertainment experience spanning screens, devices, platforms and geographies, delivering on Microsoft’s connected entertainment vision, Stephenson said in an interview with UK newspaper The Daily Telegraph. ‘This news marks a turning point for Zune as it brings cross-platform experiences and premium video content to living rooms around the world.’
The third generation Zune is the first branded customer for Nvidia’s Tegra system-on-chip, and general manager Mike Rayfield, who heads the chipmaker’s assault on products from netbooks to phones to media players, is understandably enthusiastic. “Apple probably builds a pretty good SoC, but in terms of what they have already enabled [on the iPod Touch], I don’t believe it has nearly the graphics and power management that Tegra does,” he told Computerworld, a claim backed up by analysts at ABI Research (although they think Nvidia needs to upgrade its ARM A11 core processors to new ARM Cortex A9s, a move Rayfield suggests will come in the next release of Tegra, billed to be four times faster at the same power levels). This reflects a hugely ambitious upgrade cycle ‘ Nvidia plans to update Tegra every year, rather than the average three-year cycle of most SoC rivals, which could give it the critical edge, or prove disastrously over-aggressive, leading to bugs.
Rayfield says about 50 devices, including smartbooks, in-car computers and Tivo-like video units, are being designed around Tegra. Most run Windows CE at present but Nvidia also supports Android and Chrome, other Linux systems and Windows Mobile. But it will be the high profile of Zune that may catch the eye of other tier one customers, a trick Texas Instruments has been trying to pull for its better established app processor range, OMAP, since this was adopted in the much-hyped Palm Pre and the forthcoming Motorola Sholes. OMAP will be the most vulnerable to any major success for Tegra, since TI is so strong in mobile apps processors and increasingly dependent on them to keep phonemakers on-board, since it quit the merchant baseband sector.
In July, Rayfield said Nvidia would also announce a deal with a top five cellphone manufacturer during the fourth quarter. At the time, the smart money was on Motorola, but that vendor seems to have gone with TI, at least for its high profile Android debut.
There have also been persistent rumors that HTC would adopt Tegra in some models this year (though its not in the top five), so Samsung may be the likeliest bet, or even Nokia for its planned Rover Maemo Linux device (since it has broken its umbilical cord with TI in recent times, though remains a heavy user of OMAP).
The Tegra 600-series SoC is based on an ARM11 processor, with the GeForce graphics core, low power DDR memory controller, NAND flash memory controller, and HD video processor. The smallest Tegra consumes less than one watt of power, and measures 144 millimeters square. Nvidia initially showed its hand in the smartphone market at the Mobile World Congress in February 2008, saying it believed the mobile application processor sector would be worth $6 billion by 2012. There, it unveiled its first bid to broaden its revenue streams, the APX 2500 apps processor, geared to 3D user interfaces and high definition video, with an ecosystem of partners and a touchscreen reference platform. This appeared to go head-to-head with Texas Instruments’ OMAP 3 architecture.
In 2008, the mobile app processor segment was dominated by Texas Instruments and its OMAP family, with 43% share, followed by Samsung (17.4%) and Marvell (17.1%). ST-Ericsson comes next, with 9.4%, followed by Toshiba on 6.1%, and then a group of suppliers with less than 5% each, notably Zoran, Renesas, Freescale and Nvidia.