AMD, of course, knows the console market- currently, it provides the SoC solutions for all three consoles on the market, and given each console manufacturer’s newfound insistence on hardware continuity, it is likely that it will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. Therefore, when AMD talks about how it is providing hardware solutions for another, as of yet unreleased console, you have to sit up and take notice.
Speaking of future opportunities for AMD, Devinder Kumar, chief financial officer of AMD said, “I will say that one [design win] is x86 and [another] is ARM, and at least one will [be] beyond gaming, right. But that is about as much as you going to get out me today. From the standpoint [of being] fair to [customers], it is their product, and they launch it. They are going to announce it and then […] you will find out that it is AMD’s APU that is being used in those products.”
What is interesting is that this implies that the new console that he is talking about will be a real game console, as opposed to the recent dirge of Android powered microconsoles that we have gotten. Given that obvious players like Google and Amazon have already announced products in those categories, this rules all of them out.
It could be either Apple or Samsung, but honestly, the games console market, which is fiercely competitive and contracting sharply, is not an attractive proposition for a newcomer to the market, which means this console is probably by one of the big three already invested in the market. Given that the PlayStation 4 and the Xbox One just released and are already rather successful, as opposed to the older Wii U which is a commercial failure, it is likely that AMD is talking about the new Nintendo console, which is expected some time in late 2016 at the earliest.
Whatever it is, hearing about new hardware makes me giddy.
