The upcoming Nintendo NX was reportedly the reason why NVIDIA has recently abandoned its plans to upgrade its Shield Tablet. NVIDIA merely cited "business reasons" for the cancellation.
What Is The NVIDIA Shield Tablet
NVIDIA first launched the Shield Tablet two years ago. It is a portable Android gaming device that features a touchscreen. Among its notable accessories is a dual-analog controller. The Shield Tablet also uses the company's own Tegra 4 chip.
Why NVIDIA Dropped The Shield Tablet For The Nintendo NX
Incidentally, the Tegra is one of the rumored chips that the upcoming Nintendo NX might be using, according to Digital Trends. The other rumored chip is from AMD. Industry observers are speculating that NVIDIA may have decided to give up its own consoles upgrades in order to supply its chips to Nintendo. The Tegra chips are the ones that give high-resolution screen display.
NVIDIA Puts Business First
From a business standpoint, NVIDIA may earn much more just selling the chips than putting them in the Shield Tablet. This will effectively stop any potential competition between the mobile game platforms. The tech company's foray into the mobile gaming platform market has been met with limited success. Its first batch of Shield Tablet was taken out of circulation because of the danger it posed to users.
NVIDIA eventually released Shield Tablet K1 in 2015 with virtually the same hardware setup as the original tablet. The company did offer a cheaper sales price. However, it did not achieve a high popularity among gamers.
Industry observers contend that NVIDIA should have offered unique gaming contents of its own instead of depending on the games available in Google's Play Store. The Shield Tablet's pricey sales tag and low battery life also made it uncompetitive.
The cancelled Shield Tablet would have added features such as Bluetooth and wireless electric connections. However, any supposed upgrade is now considered moot. As for the Nintendo NX, it is scheduled for release by March 2017.
