Nvidia eyes centre stage in the 'super phone' market

Nvidia has reported strong fourth-quarter earnings and said that it was upbeat on its Tegra chip and the ability to power so-called "super phones".

The company reported fourth-quarter earnings of $171.7m (£106.4m), or 29 cents a share, on revenue of $886.4m, down 10 percent from a year ago. Wall Street analysts were expecting earnings of 22 cents a share. Non-GAAP earnings were 23 cents a share, 7 cents better than estimates. Revenue was a bit lighter than the $892m expected by Wall Street, but Nvidia said that there were discrepancies in analyst estimates due to a legal settlement with Intel. That settlement with Intel resulted in a $57m credit to operating expenses.

In a statement, Nvidia chief executive Jen-Hsun Huang said the results detail "the larger story of transformation". He added that while graphics chips are critical, the company's growth will come from mobile computing. "Tegra is positioned centre stage in the revolution in super phones and tablets, while Tesla is becoming an essential processor for supercomputing," he said.

For more on this ZDNet UK-selected story, see Nvidia fourth quarter solid; Upbeat on Tegra, Tesla on ZDNet.com.