ATI to focus more on handhelds

JUST PRIOR TO ATI's big Nokia deal we learned that some big brains of ATI's graphic division want to move to the handheld business. It is simple mathematics, as the market for mobiles (or handhelds) is roughly three times the size of the PC one. This could mean three times more money and probably better salaries too.

Some of the guys that created a lot of Radeon chips might want to create the new multimedia processors for mobile phones rather than just do the graphic chips. It is a much more settled market as Nokia won't change its mind as often as Dell, HP or any other mayor OEM. Once you make the deal with Nokia and ATI/Qualcomm just did you can count it as a long-term process. This might change in the future, as Nvidia will want to get in Nokias as it is already in a few Motorolas.

We don't think it will weaken the upcoming chips, such as R600, but we think it might hurt ATI on the long run and give Nvidia more advantage to fight the big red in the graphics market. ATI already lost some of its focus when it had to design R500, XboX 360 chip but luckily it is getting back on track. µ