Is QUALCOMM, Inc. (QCOM) Scoring One of NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA)’s Juiciest Spots?

If Google switched to the APQ8064, then that would mean the search giant is picking an older-generation Snapdragon over the newest Tegra. The company is certainly looking to save on costs, because it sells the Nexus 7 around breakeven, but shipping the tablet with such an older processor to save a couple of bucks still seems suspect, considering the significant performance gains that tablet processors are still realizing each year. The top-of-the-line Snapdragon 800 series are expected to deliver performance gains of 75% compared to the previous generation.

Lost the win?
As a Qualcomm investor myself, I would certainly like to see the company score the Nexus 7 spot, but at the same time, there are some critical questions that need to be asked when it comes to this newest speculation that NVIDIA has lost the Nexus win to its larger rival. Some of the reasoning behind the rumor doesn’t pass the sniff test.

NVIDIA has had remarkable success in tablets, and some of that momentum can be expected to carry over into 2013. I’m not so sure that NVIDIA lost this win.

The article Is Qualcomm Scoring One of NVIDIA’s Juiciest Spots? originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by Evan Niu, CFA.

Fool contributor Evan Niu, CFA, owns shares of Qualcomm. The Motley Fool recommends Google and NVIDIA. The Motley Fool owns shares of Google, Microsoft, and Qualcomm.

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