Frustrated with its lack of wins in the mobile market, chip designer NVIDIA (NVDA +2.41%) came up with a new strategy: License your graphics designs to other mobile processor builders.
NVIDIA's high-performance graphics solutions tend to crush competing designs from Qualcomm (QCOM +8.07%) and PowerVR, but only in terms of raw performance. The picture is far murkier when you include factors like battery life and pricing. NVIDIA probably doesn't stand much of a chance at breaking into Qualcomm's products, given that the big Q likes to design its own graphics systems. But maybe Samsung or Apple would consider replacing their creaky PowerVR licenses with NVIDIA ones?
If that idea doesn't pan out, NVIDIA is also about to launch an Android-based handheld gaming system. Have you heard of the NVIDIA Shield, which launches on June 27? No? That's probably not a good sign. Nintendo can breathe easy; its dominant 3DS system's market share safe from harm this time.
NVIDIA stock has underperformed the market in the long run and traded sideways over the last year. The company could use a big win right now, or maybe two. In the video below, Fool contributor Anders Bylund explains what NVIDIA's pair of Hail Mary plays mean for investors. Spoiler alert: It's not good news.
