FUD Zilla picked up a rumor that NVIDIA is working on reference smartphone and tablet designs. These designs should by ready by mid-2013 and will be marketed by NVIDIA's partners. The first 7" and 10" devices will likely arrive by May or June, just in time for Computex.
Nvidia will rely on partners to market the devices and, according to Mobile Review, regional retail players should tap Nvidia’s designs, using them to replace cheap Chinese white-box tablets usually sold in their outlets. It is still unclear whether Nvidia AIBs will join the fun, but we reckon at least some of them would be very interested.
The reference design approach could allow Nvidia to gain a lot more Tegra design wins and secure its presence in retail. It sounds like a very interesting idea to get more Tegra devices to consumers by cutting out the middle-man. Bear in mind that Nvidia has plenty of experience with reference designs, as it has been selling graphics cards through numerous AIBs for years.
