Nintendo (NTDOY) pushed out a big software update for its Wii U users. The update, which is estimated to be around 5GB, takes hours to install and fixes many glitches and software bugs. Despite the inconvenience for its users, sales across the United States for the Wii U were strong. This follows through with strong pre-sale figures from GameStop (GME). 1.2 million Wii U software titles were pre-ordered.
Although a number of applications for the Nintendo Wii U are not ready, Hulu Plus was made available on November 20, followed by Amazon Instant Video on November 21. Upcoming but unreleased apps such as the TVii app will be available next month.
In addition to watching Nintendo shares, investors might want to consider the part suppliers for the console maker. Power the Wii U is IBM’s (IBM) 45-nanometer central processor. There is 2GB of DDR3 RAM. Though not confirmed, it is thought that the graphics chip is an “E6760,” a modified AMD (AMD) Radeon processor.
The Wii U is especially power efficient, when compared to the Sony (SNE) PS3 and the Microsoft (MSFT) XBOX 360. The console uses just 33 watts of power, two-thirds lower than that of the PS3 Slim.
Business Section: Investing Ideas
Sales for the Wii U will benefit suppliers, but memory makers may not see much upside. The share price of these companies depends on DRAM pricing. In October 2012, DRAM pricing was still dropping. 4GB DDR modules fell to as low as $16. This is a low not seen since the second half of 2011. Still, investors interested in this segment should look at the following companies:
1. Micron Technology Inc. (MU, Earnings, Analysts, Financials): Engages in the manufacture and marketing of semiconductor devices worldwide. Market cap at $5.62B, most recent closing price at $5.52.
2. Rambus Inc. (RMBS, Earnings, Analysts, Financials): Engages in the creation, design, development, and licensing of patented innovations, technologies, and architectures to digital electronics products and systems. Market cap at $510.05M, most recent closing price at $4.60.
In the storage space:
3. SanDisk Corp. (SNDK, Earnings, Analysts, Financials): Designs, develops, manufactures, and markets NAND-based flash data storage card products that are used in various consumer electronics products. Market cap at $9.54B
4. Seagate Technology PLC (STX, Earnings, Analysts, Financials): Designs, manufactures, markets, and sells hard disk drives for the enterprise, client compute, and client non-compute market applications in the United States and internationally. Market cap at $10.1B
5. Western Digital Corp. (WDC, Earnings, Analysts, Financials): Engages in the design, development, manufacture, and sale of hard drives worldwide. Market cap at $8.37B
In the chip processing segment:
6. Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD, Earnings, Analysts, Financials): Operates as a semiconductor company in the United States, Japan, China, and Europe. Market cap at $1.33B
7. NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA, Earnings, Analysts, Financials): Provides visual computing, high performance computing, and mobile computing solutions that generate interactive graphics on various devices ranging from tablets and smart phones to notebooks and workstations. Market cap at $7.32B
8. International Business Machines Corp. (IBM, Earnings, Analysts, Financials): Provides information technology (IT) products and services worldwide. Market cap at $215.01B
Companies mentioned in this article:
9. Sony Corporation (SNE, Earnings, Analysts, Financials): Designs, develops, manufactures, and sells electronic equipment, instruments, and devices for consumer, professional, and industrial markets worldwide. Market cap at $10.13B
10. Microsoft Corporation (MSFT, Earnings, Analysts, Financials): Develops, licenses, and supports a range of software products and services for various computing devices worldwide. Market cap at $226.82B
11. Nintendo Co. Ltd. (NTDOY, Earnings, Analysts, Financials): Engaged in the development, manufacture and sale of entertainment products in home entertainment field. Market cap at $17.91B
12. GameStop Corp. (GME, Earnings, Analysts, Financials): Operates as a retailer of video game products and personal computer (PC) entertainment software. Market cap at $3.34B
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