Verizon Eliminates Contracts and Device Subsidies
With Verizon's new plans, there are no more contracts and no more device subsidies. Instead, consumers pay for their phones, pay for a bucket of data, and then pay a fee for each device that they add onto the account. The base monthly data fees are 1GB for $30, 3GB for $45, 6GB for $60, and 12GB for $80. On top of the data bucket fee, users will pay $20 to add a smartphone to the account, $10 for a tablet/data stick, and $5 for a smartwatch with cellular capabilities. Additional data over the limit will cost $15 per gigabyte,
As for existing consumers, Verizon will apparently offer avenues for them to get another subsidized device when they transition to these new plans, and they can also hold onto their older plans if they desire. Verizon customers interested in the new plans can switch over when they go live on August 13.
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NVIDIA FY 2016 Q2 Results: GPU Sales Are Strong But Write Downs Hurt Bottom Line
| NVIDIA Q2 2016 Financial Results (GAAP) | |||||
| Q2'2016 | Q1'2016 | Q2'2015 | Q/Q | Y/Y | |
| Revenue (in millions USD) | $1153 | $1151 | $1103 | flat | +5% |
| Gross Margin | 55.0% | 56.7% | 56.1% | -1.7% | -1.1% |
| Operating Expenses (in millions USD) | $558 | $477 | $456 | +17% | +22% |
| Net Income | $26 | $134 | $128 | -81% | -80% |
| EPS | $0.05 | $0.24 | $0.22 | -79% | -77% |
A big factor in this was the write down of their Icera modem division. NVIDIA had been looking for a buyer for their modem unit, but was unable to find a suitable buyer for the business and is therefore winding down operations in this unit. This caused a hit of $0.19 per diluted share. Also during the quarter, NVIDIA announced a recall of their SHIELD tablets due to overheating batteries, and there have been two cases of property damage due to this. This caused another hit of $0.02 per diluted share. They also had $24 million in expenses related to the Samsung and Qualcomm lawsuit.
| NVIDIA Q2 2016 Financial Results (Non-GAAP) | |||||
| Q2'2016 | Q1'2016 | Q2'2015 | Q/Q | Y/Y | |
| Revenue (in millions USD) | $1153 | $1151 | $1103 | flat | +5% |
| Gross Margin | 56.6% | 56.9% | 56.4% | -0.3% | +0.2% |
| Operating Expenses (in millions USD) | $421 | $425 | $412 | -1% | +2% |
| Net Income | $190 | $187 | $173 | +2% | +10% |
| EPS | $0.34 | $0.33 | $0.30 | +3% | +13% |
NVIDIA’s non-GAAP results “exclude stock-based compensation, product warranty charge, acquisition-related costs, restructuring and other charges, gains and losses from non-affiliated investments, interest expense related to amortization of debt discount, and the associated tax impact of these items, where applicable” which means that they do not reflect either the Icera write-down, nor the tablet recall. On a non-GAAP basis, gross margin was up 20 bps to 56.6%, with net income up 10% to $190 million. Diluted earnings per share were $0.34, up 13% from Q2 2015’s $0.30 non-GAAP numbers. Despite a significant write-down and a recall, the core business is still doing very well.
For the quarter, NVIDIA paid out $52 million in dividends and repurchased $400 million in stock.
What is driving growth right now is its GPU business. Revenue for GeForce GPUs grew 51%, and NVIDIA has continued to see strength in the PC gaming sector. Fueled by the release of the GTX 980 and GTX 980 Ti, sales of high-end GTX GPUs “grew significantly” year-over-year. The Titan X would certainly fall in there as well, although unlikely at as high of volume. Maxwell has been a very strong performer, and gamers tend to go where the performance is. Souring the results somewhat is a decline in Tesla GPU sales, as well as Quadro GPU sales. Overall, GPU revenue was up 9% year-over-year to $959 million. Even as NVIDIA has tried to diversify with SoCs, their GPU business is still almost 85% of the company.
NVIDIA has found a niche in the automotive infotainment world, and that that area is still strong for them. Tegra has not taken off in the tablet or smartphone space in any meaningful way, but there was still growth in the automotive sales for Tegra. Overall Tegra processor revenue was down 19% year-over-year, which is mainly due to Tegra OEM smartphones and tablets. NVIDIA’s own Tegra sales in the Shield helped offset this loss somewhat, but as the recall filings showed, they only sold 88,000 SHIELD tablets. Margins are likely helped by the fact that they run their own SoC in it though.
NVIDIA’s “Other” segment is a fixed 66 million licensing payment from Intel, and as always, that is flat and does not change. This is from the 2011 settlement of a licensing dispute, and will end in 2017.
| NVIDIA Quarterly Revenue Comparison (GAAP) | |||||
| In millions | Q2'2016 | Q1'2016 | Q2'2015 | Q/Q | Y/Y |
| GPU | $959 | $940 | $878 | +2% | +9% |
| Tegra Processor | $128 | $145 | $159 | -12% | -19% |
| Other | $66 | $66 | $66 | flat | flat |
For Q3 2016, NVIDIA is expecting revenue to be $1.18 billion, plus or minus 2%, with margins of 56.2% to 56.5%.
NVIDIA is obviously a giant in the GPU space, and that is going very well for them. Sales are very strong, and PC gaming has been a strong point in an otherwise weakening PC market. They are attempting to diversify to mobile, but have found out just how difficult that can be, and had to write down their modem division completely. Without a good integrated modem, it will be difficult to gain traction in the smartphone space, but NVIDIA’s current SoC offerings don’t seem well suited to smartphones anyway. Their strength in GPU knowledge has certainly helped them with the GPU side of the equation, but their first attempt at CPU design has not been as strong. We shall see what their plans are for the SoC space going forward, but for now they are riding a wave of strong GPU sales, and that is a good thing for NVIDIA.
Source: NVIDIA Investor Relations
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Corsair and Cherry Introduce New, Quieter Mechanical Keyboard Switches
The leading supplier of mechanical keyboard switches is Cherry, whose MX switches have been on the market since 1983. The different variants of MX switches offer differences in stiffness, tactile response, and audible clicking. All the switches share common interfaces for mounting the switches to the keyboard and attaching the keys themselves to the switches, so a keyboard manufacturer can easily produce several similar products to suit different tastes. The switch variants are identified by the color of the plastic stem that key caps attach to; blue, brown, black, and red are the most common.
This week Cherry is introducing quieter versions of some of their switches. In these quieter switches the colored plastic slide at the heart of the switch will now be made with a double-shot injection molding process to integrate a shock absorber made from a rubbery thermoplastic elastomer. This will soften the impact and dampen the noise produced when the key stroke bottoms out or springs back to the top. Previously, users bothered by the noise of bottoming out could add rubber O-rings or foam pads around the key stem to catch the key on its way down, but installing them as an aftermarket modification is tedious and it slightly reduces the key's range of travel.
| Cherry MX Switches | ||||||
| MX Black | MX Black Silent | MX Red | MX Red Silent | |||
| Activation Force | 60cN | 60cN | 45cN | 45cN | ||
| Key Travel | 4mm | 3.7mm | 4mm | 3.7mm | ||
| Actuation Rating | 50M | 50M | 50M | 50M | ||
The Cherry MX Silent switches will reduce or eliminate the need for O-rings and also provide the first effective way to reduce the click that can occur when a key is released. Cherry will initially be making Silent versions of the MX Black and MX Red switches, both of which feature a linear actuation force, with activation thresholds of 60 cN and 45 cN respectively. The Silent switches will be available with both the traditional opaque plastic housing and the newer translucent housing designed to allow surface-mounted LEDs to shine through on boards that offer customizable RGB backlighting. Key travel is reduced from 4mm to 3.7mm, but the other specs are unchanged, including the rating for 50 million actuations.
Corsair was Cherry's exclusive partner for the introduction of the Cherry MX RGB switches in 2014, and for this launch Corsair gets six months of exclusive access to the Silent switches. The first product using the new MX Silent switches will be the Corsair STRAFE RGB Silent, which will be available for pre-order this month with a MSRP of $159.99 and will ship in October.
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The Origin PC BlackWidow Chroma Mechanical Keyboard Review
Most of our US and Canada based readers that are involved with PC gaming are highly likely to have heard of ORIGIN PC, the company that specializes on building custom systems exclusively focused on gaming. They are also known for their US-based operation and support. Our first review of their products systems was the Genesis gaming PC, over four years ago. Ever since then, Origin PC expanded to the design of professional systems and laptops, as well as the marketing of gaming peripherals. It is one of these new peripherals that we will be having a look at in this capsule review, the Origin PC BlackWidow Chroma gaming mechanical keyboard.
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Basemark & Crytek To Develop New VR Benchmark
This morning benchmark developer Basemark and game engine developer Crytek are announcing that the two of them are partnering together to develop a new dedicated VR benchmark. In a presentation aptly named “Can it Run VR?” Basemark and Crytek have laid out their goals for the benchmark, which will be built around Crytek’s CRYENGINE. The two companies will be developing a full AAA quality VR benchmark for PCs running on top of DirectX 12, with the end product to be a “real-world” benchmark thanks to its use of a commercial game engine. Crytek for their part are no strangers to VR, with CRYENGINE already powering the Back to Dinosaur Island VR Tech demo.
For their benchmark, Basemark and Crytek are looking to evaluate several aspects of VR. Along with the expected look at framerates – Oculus has been pushing 90Hz – Basemark has also stated that the VR benchmark will have the capability to measure latency, both for inputs and displays. Latency has been a big focus point for the first generation headsets due to the fact that it is so crucial in causing/combating motion sickness, so the fact that the benchmark will incorporate testing for it may very well be the most important feature of this benchmark. Having a neutral 3rd party provide a standardized latency test will go a long way towards not just comparing headsets, but helping manufacturers improve them as well. Meanwhile, Basemark and Crytek have also mentioned that they will be looking at additional tests further down the line, including headset image quality and dynamic range.
Finally, while the benchmark is being announced today, the nature of the announcement makes us believe that the benchmark is still in early development. As part of their press release Basemark is including a call to action, inviting interested companies to sign up and participate in the development of the benchmark. As a result no firm date is attached to the project right now, but it’s a safe bet that this is going to be a 2016 release.
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Report: Over 25 Million Devices Upgraded to Windows 10... or Was It 67 Million?
The blogosphere is excitedly reporting on installation numbers with wildly varying accounts, while Microsoft works quietly and patiently
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Palmer Luckey Breaks the Internet w/ Goofy VR Magazine Cover
But newly minted Facebook multimillionaire has the last laugh
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Available Tags:NVIDIA , GPU , Keyboard , Windows ,
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