The rapid evolution of mobile devices is actively driving the industry to develop better graphics, optimized voice quality and faster quad-core processors.
According to Linley Gwennap of the Linley Group, mobile systems are quickly becoming the game platform of choice.
”I think we will see more game play on smartphones and less on dedicated devices like the Nintendo 3DS and Sony Playstation Vita – even tablets are taking away from game consoles,” Gwennap said in an industry noted obtained by the EE Times.
Indeed, Nvidia has already created a specialized Tegra gaming zone for its tablets, while Apple is actively courting devs to port games to its next-gen iPad. Meanwhile, Qualcomm recently launched its Snapdragon S4 Pro lineup, which is focused primarily on rendering enhanced graphics for games and other apps.
“The amount of silicon devoted to the GPU is starting to increase significantly as we look at die photos of mobile chips,” he confirmed.
Gwennap also noted that a focus on graphics and performance has led to a slow shift toward quad-core processors for companies like Nvidia, Huawei and Freescale.
“I think it’s clear with the right software quad core is a better solution [but] most Android apps don’t take advantage of quad cores, and Apple hasn’t pushed the iOS infrastructure for more than two cores yet.
“Most of today’s mobile software is not really going to use three and four cores, but that will evolve over time and things will become more favorable for quad core over the year,” Gwennap added.
