Nvidia Adds A Set-Top Box To Its Shield Family

March 5th, 2015 by Trefis Team
-34.55%
Downside
142
Market
92.84
Trefis
NVDA: NVIDIA logo
NVDA
NVIDIA

At the ongoing Game Developer Conference in San Francisco, Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) expanded its Shield lineup, which includes the Shield Android handheld console and the Shield tablet, by adding an Android TV console to its portfolio. Available for $199, the Shield set-top box comes with a controller and runs on Google’s recently launched Android TV platform. The device is powered by Nvidia’s Tegra X1 processor which has a 256-core Maxwell architecture GPU and 64-bit CPU. Nvidia claims that more than 50 Android titles will be optimized for Shield, including Crysis 3 and Doom 3, and some of the world’s leading game developers and publishers have embraced Shield and the GRID service. The company also unveiled a 1080p game-streaming service enabled by its Grid server GPU platform. (Read Press Release)

Though the Shield set-top box is costlier than Apple TV ($99), Amazon’s Fire TV ($99), and Roku’s hardware ($50-$100), its gaming capabilities are far superior. [1] But whether Nvidia is successful in shifting loyalties of gaming enthusiasts from PlayStation 4 ($400) or Xbox One ($350-$450) to Shield, we can only wait and watch.

Nvidia Eyes The Android Gaming Market To Expand Its Tegra Revenue Base

Relevant Articles
  1. Could Nvidia Stock Crash 50%?
  2. Trump Helps AI Stocks Like Nvidia. Here’s How
  3. Nvidia Stock: High Risk, Higher Return?
  4. Why Did Nvidia Stock Fall 5%?
  5. Can Fed Rate Cut Take Nvidia Stock To $200?
  6. Here’s A Better AI Pick Than Nvidia

Nvidia launched Shield, its maiden attempt as a gaming hardware provider, in July 2013. Last quarter, Nvidia powered the holiday season’s two best-reviewed Android tablets, the Google Nexus 9 and its own SHIELD Tablet. More than a dozen media outlets recommended SHIELD in their holiday gift giving guides. Over the course of last quarter, SHIELD, which has pioneered a premium gaming experience for tablets, became one of the very first devices to be upgraded to the Google’s latest OS, Android 5.0 Lollipop. [2]

The gaming hardware market was worth $23.6 billion in 2012 and the global gaming market is estimated to cross $30 billion by 2015. [3] Nvidia aims to focus on developing the Android gaming market. Android is the world’s largest operating system platform, and the company believes that over time it will also be one of the world’s largest gaming platforms. Nvidia intends to leverage the capability and expertise it has developed in the PC industry in the last 15 to 20 years for the Android gaming market.

Nvidia claims that the mobile gaming market is a $70 billion market and is growing rapidly internationally. The mobile cloud is probably one of the most important disruptions in the history of computing, and yet there’s really no computer gaming architecture that serves mobile cloud very well. According to Nvidia, SHIELD offers  the platform that allows the mobile cloud to bring gaming to an under-served and new market. Given its strong graphics and processing capabilities, the company is able to delivers a compact powerful and optimized system to eager gamers.

Our price estimate of $22 for Nvidia is in line with the current market price.

See our complete analysis for Nvidia

View Interactive Institutional Research (Powered by Trefis):

NVIDIA just announced that the 32GB LTE variant of the Shield is now available for pre-order. $399 buys the unlocked LTE tablet in its own right, but NVIDIA tells us that AT&T will be offering it for $299 on contract.
Notes:
  1. Nvidia unveils $199 Android set-top, game streaming service, Seeking Alpha, March 4, 2015 [↩]
  2. Nvidia’s Q4 2015 Earnings Call Transcript, Seeking Alpha, February 11, 2015 [↩]
  3. PC Gaming Hardware Market to Hit $23.6 Billion in 2012, Jon Peddie Research, May 3, 2012 [↩]