Did Anyone Seriously Believe nVidia Would Dump Their Chipsets?!

Whhaaaattt?! Stop it. That's just cheating. You can't just go and print something so completely off-base that nVidia's PR department has to call every tech blogger on the internet and set the record straight and then they all link to your website as they describe what a shmuck you are. That's too easy.

Man, I wish I could have been faster to the draw on this one. I could have looked really smart.

It's been pretty well covered that nVidia is not leaving the chipset business. I'm not sure how you can follow the industry at all and think that could possibly happen. They've had the enthusiast market in a stranglehold for years now, and so have built up a massive, loyal, profitable customer base. Why throw that away? Plus, the future of the industry is platforms, not processors, and without a chipset, they'd be even more vulnerable. And what about their snazzy new account? Chipsets! Chipsets!

It's kind of funny that the proof for this whole thing was that Gigabyte, Foxconn, and DFI dumped their 790i products. I mean really, it's obvious that even though Asus, MSI, XFX, and eVGA all are still making 790i boards, the fact that these other 3 companies (none of which are very strong with nVidia products across the board) dropped this ONE NICHE PRODUCT must mean the nVidia is throwing in the towel on their entire chipset business all together. Perfect sense!

Update 08/03 - Charlie at The Inquirer just published a pretty aggressively scathing piece reiterating that "nVidia chipsets are history". Now, this isn't abnormal for Charlie. He loves to bash nVidia and that's all well and good -- everyone needs a trademark. Regardless, he makes a few points that are coming across as not too closely aligned with reality and I'm really wondering what's behind it all.

This key dramatic moment in time keeps getting drug up in which nVidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang is on the phone with all of nVidia's board partners, and he asks them if there was a reason why nVidia should stay in the chipset business. Purportedly, there was no answer, awkward silence, "crickets chirping"... I think this whole thing is some ridiculous skewed version of an actual event which probably holds much less significance than is being inferred. Who from those manufacturers was on the phone? Why would Jen-Hsun ask such a ridiculous question? In what context would a question even remotely similar come up. I'd think he would be on the phone telling them why they should be selling nVidia chipsets. The whole thing smacks of fiction, or at the least, some extremely skewed version of reality.

And by the way, here's one simple answer to the question : $$$$$$. Was someone trying to come up with a more philosophical answer?

This is the main thing: I don't think nVidia is made up of dumb people. Yes, I do agree that not being in the game when Nehalem gets launched is generally a bad move for business (even if actually bringing a product to market is in itself a negative profit propositon, that would be outweighed by the ability to keep their strong position), but I don't think that it's impossible for them to come back strong with a DMI-compatible product. The fact is that chipsets are the most obvious place for them to grow their business right now, and I've seen plenty of their vision to think they're on the right track. Let's not confuse a messy, cut-throat battle with a powerful competitor with weakness. They'll make mistakes, but in the chipset market, they've got plenty of room to grow.