Nvidia Teams Up with Microsoft to Release 2 Revamped Surface Tabs, Nvidia Challenges Nexus 7 and Samsung Galaxy Tab
NVIDIA and Microsoft join together to work on the next generation Surface RT tablets. It is important to note that Microsoft has suffered quite a loss on their Surface tablets. The company was forced to slash the prices off their products leading to hundreds of millions of dollars in losses.
According to an interview by CNET, NVIDIA head Jen-Hsun Huang expressed that the company has been working extremely hard on developing a new device. They want to overturn the failure that Microsoft experienced with their first generation Surface RT.
Can NVIDIA deliver?
"Now we're going to bring it with the second-generation Surface. We're working really hard on it, and we hope that it's going to be a big success," Huang said.
NVIDIA will be powering up the latest Surface RT with a Tegra 3 processor. There are no announcements yet whether NVIDIA will be using their newest Tegra 4 chipset or if the company plans on adding leverage through their Tegra 5 CPU. The Tegra 5 CPU is intended to support the latest ARM-based tablet for Windows and Microsoft.
Microsoft lost nearly $900 million because the Surface RT tablet did not deliver the intended sales. Initially, the plan sold the device at $500. However, the slow sales forced the tech giant to reduce the price by as much as $150. The new price for Surface RT tablets is now at $350.
The discounted price seems to do the trick for Microsoft as sales have been picking up. The start was slow but Microsoft does not appear to be disheartened the by results of their initial try in the tablet industry. This coordination with NVIDIA signals the company's intentions to make it right and dominate the computing industry once more.
Despite the added help, Microsoft should look into their ARM-based processors. Although they share similar appearance to Windows 8, the processors do not have access to certain applications especially those developed using the x86 platform. The platform often runs on AMD and Intel processors. This means the Windows RT has limited access to apps. They are often just appropriate for those programs created for the Metro UI.
Previously, many believe the tech giant will go to NVIDIA or partner with it to develop another series of tablets. There were also reports that they will be using Qualcomm processors.
Microsoft has yet to make any official announcements about the matter.