NVIDIA reportedly bringing Kai strategy to phones

Before the Nexus 7 was official announced, NVIDIA hinted that low cost tablets featuring its quad-core Tegra processor were on the horizon thanks to its "Kai" strategy. That would pair the silicon with low-cost internals to drive down the price to an affordable $199. Could the same strategy be applied to smartphones? MyDrivers seems to think so, with the site saying NVIDIA is working with a Chinese OEM to bring a low-cost smartphone with Tegra 3 to the market.

They don't say which market, however, although we doubt NVIDIA would restrict such a move to just China. The site goes on to say that it could be a ploy to help accelerate its LTE plans in the wake of handsets featuring Qualcomm's Snapdragon S4 and integrated LTE modem. As for the manufacturer, candidates could include ZTE or Huawei.

ZTE announced a handful of new phones at MWC 2012, with the ZTE Era among them. That was a 4.3-inch handset with a qHD resolution and NVIDIA's Tegra 3 processor. The company said the phone was due to be released in the third quarter of this year, but we haven't heard anything about the phone since its MWC unveil. When you take that information into account, it's not hard to imagine ZTE working with NVIDIA on Kai to bring a low-cost quad-core smartphone to market.

[via Unwired View]