Nvidia Corp. Chief Executive Officer Jen-Hsun Huang said he’s disappointed with sales of tablets running Microsoft Corp.’s Windows RT software, including those with processors from the graphics-chip maker.
“We haven’t sold enough,” Huang said yesterday at a company event in San Jose. Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) will eventually “get it right” because Windows RT is so important, he said. To bolster sales, Microsoft needs to add support for Outlook scheduling and e-mail software, Huang said.
Windows RT, the first version of Microsoft’s operating system for computers powered by ARM Holdings Plc technology, is key to the software maker’s attempt to cut into Apple Inc.’s (Nasdaq: AAPL) dominance in tablets with the iPad. Nvidia’s chips are in three RT devices, including the Surface RT, Microsoft’s first computer-hardware product.
For Nvidia (Nasdaq: NVDA), winning a spot in the Surface was seen as a stepping stone for getting its Tegra mobile processors into more tablets and computers. Yet Microsoft has sold little more than a million Surface RT devices since its introduction in October, people with knowledge of the company’s sales said last week.
Mark Martin, a spokesman for Microsoft, didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
Huang also said the next version of Nvidia’s Tegra mobile processor, called Logan and due in 2014, will feature the graphics capability usually found in full-sized personal computers.
“It does everything a modern computer ought to do,” he said yesterday. “We should see Logan in production early next year.”
Under Huang, who co-founded the company in 1993, Nvidia has pushed into new areas, seeking to shore up sales as other companies’ semiconductors take on more of the graphics processing once done by Nvidia’s chips. As part of the company’s diversification, Nvidia will begin selling a server built around its processors that will let companies turn their network PCs into more powerful workstations by streaming computing to them, Huang said.
Nvidia also said it has signed up Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ), Dell Inc. (Nasdaq: DELL), Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO) and IBM Corp. (NYSE: IBM) to build servers on its graphics chips.
Nvidia, based in Santa Clara, was a pioneer of specialized chips that improved graphics and brought lifelike images to computer screens. Its newer products are used in mobile phones, tablets and cars, and the company plans to begin selling a portable gaming console. Nvidia gets more than 60 percent of sales from the graphics processors it makes for other companies’ PCs, consoles and tablets.
Nvidia shares rose less than 1 percent to $12.54 at 9:47 a.m. in New York. Through yesterday, they had gained 1.7 percent this year.
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