Slashdot Mirror
Don't Expect A New Nvidia Shield Tablet Anytime Soon
During a small press gathering at CES in Las Vegas today, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said the company doesn't have any plans to resurrect the Shield Tablet, which launched in 2014, was last refreshed in 2015 and officially discontinued last year. "Shield TV is still unquestionably the best Android TV in the world," he said. "We have updated the software now over 30 times. People are blown away by how much we continue to enhance it." And more (unspecified) enhancements are coming, he said. TechCrunch reports: On the mobile side, though, the days of the Shield Tablet are very much over, especially now that the Nintendo Switch, which uses Nvidia's Tegra chips, has really captured that market. "We are really committed to [Shield TV], but on mobile devices, we don't think it's necessary," Huang said. "We would only build things not to gain market share. Nvidia is not a "take somebody else's market share company.' I think that's really angry. It's an angry way to run a business. Creating new markets, expanding the horizon, creating things that the world doesn't have, that's a loving way to build a business."
He added that this is the way to inspire employees, too. Just copying competitors and maybe selling a product cheaper, though, does nothing to motivate employees and is not what Nvidia is interested in. Of course, Huang left the door open to a future tablet if it made sense -- though he clearly doesn't think it does today. He'd only do so, "if the world needs it. But at the moment, I just don't see it. I think Nintendo did such a great job."
He added that this is the way to inspire employees, too. Just copying competitors and maybe selling a product cheaper, though, does nothing to motivate employees and is not what Nvidia is interested in. Of course, Huang left the door open to a future tablet if it made sense -- though he clearly doesn't think it does today. He'd only do so, "if the world needs it. But at the moment, I just don't see it. I think Nintendo did such a great job."
This is the same CEO of the company who came to fame by crushing 3dfx and Matrox in the graphics card wars of the late 1990's and 2000's... right?
While my memory of that period may not be as clear 20+ year later, I think Nvidia was actually breaking new ground back then. Matrox made some wickedly fast 2d accelerated cards, but I don't seem to recall them ever having anything particularly compelling in the 3d market (the attempts they did make were either slow, poor quality, or both). 3dfx had some killer 3d performance, but every one of their cards was neutered in some form or another (required separate 2D card, limited resolution, only 16-bit color, 2D+3D in one card sacrificed performance).
Nvidia sort of created the perfect middle ground. A single card that could perform extremely good at both 2D and 3D (though not top of the line at either), great image quality, and not too pricey. And though my memory is less certain on this, I feel like they were earlier to have full opengl and better support for new direct3d features. And when the GeForce cards came out with the first implementations of programmable transform/lighting pipelines, that was the final nail in the coffin for most of the competition...you could have your cake AND eat it, and they'd even throw some extra sprinkles on the top for good measure.
It is refreshing to see a technology product not forced into obsolescence quickly just to allow the device manufacturer to sell you a marginally improved version 2 of the device.
I got the 2015 Nvidia Shield TV upon release - at the time it was a device that I was told was overpowered and future proof by design, and they were spot on.
Maybe because it was built to be a media hub as well as gaming system (though I really don't play games with mine), but the evolving features and performance over the years have been extremely good.
Firmware updates and partnerships with Amazon has ensured that the system remains supported and stays current with the best of streaming services.
The Nvidia Shield TV has set the bar for quality!