Microsoft Corporation (MSFT) Prepares to Back Off — Again

Page 2 of 2

Bloomberg just reported last week that Microsoft was switching to QUALCOMM, Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM) Snapdragons for its second-generation Surface RT, displacing current provider NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) . Qualcomm’s strengths in cellular integration may be doing it favors in tablets at last, as Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) is supposedly looking to add cellular options this time around. Moving to Qualcomm makes sense, as Microsoft’s Windows Phones have always run exclusively on Snapdragon processors.

It’s also been rumored that QUALCOMM, Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM) scored the win in Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG)‘s second-generation Nexus 7, also grabbing the seat from NVIDIA. If so, that would be two of NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA)’s highest-profile design wins from 2012 going to its biggest mobile rival. That’s to be somewhat expected, though, as NVIDIA strategically chose to postpone the Tegra 4 schedule to focus resources on its Tegra 4i — some time-sensitive design losses were inevitable.

Developers, developers, developers
Naturally, Microsoft will be catering heavily toward developers. It is a developer conference, after all. The company is fully aware that it needs to bolster its content availability. Windows Phone’s app count growth has slowed in recent times, and Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) is still trying to get more native “Metro” style apps in the Windows Store.

To that end, the company has reportedly begun offering incentives of up to $100,000 to developers willing to build Windows Phone apps.

Developer conferences have become important events for companies to communicate with different stakeholders. Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) I/O was in May, and Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) WWDC was two weeks ago at the same venue. Tomorrow is Microsoft’s turn to step into the limelight.

The article Microsoft Prepares to Back Off — Again originally appeared on Fool.com.

Fool contributor Evan Niu, CFA, owns shares of Apple and Qualcomm. The Motley Fool recommends Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG), Intel, and NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA). The Motley Fool owns shares of Apple, Google, Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC), Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), and QUALCOMM, Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM).

Copyright © 1995 – 2013 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.


Page 2 of 2