NVIDIA's mobile plans

I recently had a series of exchanges with NVIDIA, including a free-ranging chat with Mike Rayfield, the general manager of NVIDIA's mobile group, about NVIDIA's plans for handheld devices. Like the rest of the technology industry, NVIDIA has been closely watching the smartphone space in general and the iPhone launch in particular, and the company has learned a few things both from Apple and from their own experience with the GoForce line of media SoCs.

The first lesson of the emerging mobile market is this: desktop PCs are about applications and performance, but handheld devices are about functionality and features. And on the list of important handheld features, the ability to make a voice call has gone from the top to somewhere near the bottom in the post-iPhone era.