Nvidia Branded Video Cards Only Sold in Best Buy
Nvidia's video card plans only go as far as Best Buy stores.
It was a bit of a surprise to learn that Nvidia was selling its own video cards at Best Buy. The boxes were labeled as being designed and made by the creators, but in reality the manufacturing of the reference boards is by Foxconn and the tech support is outsourced to India.
Is Nvidia going up against its vendor partners in the retail space? Yes, but only in Best Buy, and only in the U.S., according to comments made to X-bit labs.
"We have no plans to do that outside Best Buy stores [in the U.S.]. It is a unique marketing initiative with Best Buy," said Bryan Del Rizzo of Nvidia PR.
Even though there are Best Buy stores opening up in the UK, it seems the first-party cards will be only sold on home turf.
The thinking behind this is that the majority of U.S. computer enthusiasts who know what sort of video card they want end up buying from an online source. Those who don't know what they want may just go into Best Buy and pick up a box with a name that they are familiar with.

Are you kidding me? Have you seen the price tag the Best Buy throws on these cards? Most cards from Best Buy (from what I've seen) have at least a $50 markup on top of what online vendors like Newegg and TigerDirect offer. This is a money making move, but they won't make the money until Best Buy can appeal to more enthusiasts.
I see this as something the GeekSquad will capitalize on for video card installation services.
It says right there in the last paragraph of the article that they are NOT trying to appeal to enthusiast customers. They are trying to sell cards on brand name alone to customers who don't know much about computers, ie. GeekSquad cunsumers.
Kind of like how Apple can sell a cement brick for $500 and call it the iPhone 5 and people will still buy it, Nvidia is banking on customers who don't know much about video cards, but know the name Nvidia.
Pointless step.
I would say they are trying to setp on the toes of there bit players
IE xfx and evga. Sad to see BFG out. Nvidia should help them out instesd of a self brandded card.
For a high tech and generally good company, you have some dumb people working with you.
Huh?
Are you kidding me? Have you seen the price tag the Best Buy throws on these cards? Most cards from Best Buy (from what I've seen) have at least a $50 markup on top of what online vendors like Newegg and TigerDirect offer. This is a money making move, but they won't make the money until Best Buy can appeal to more enthusiasts.
I see this as something the GeekSquad will capitalize on for video card installation services.
Boy, isn't that the truth. Do these "special" NVidia cards come packed with a tube of K-Y Jelly to help ease the pain?
It says right there in the last paragraph of the article that they are NOT trying to appeal to enthusiast customers. They are trying to sell cards on brand name alone to customers who don't know much about computers, ie. GeekSquad cunsumers.
Kind of like how Apple can sell a cement brick for $500 and call it the iPhone 5 and people will still buy it, Nvidia is banking on customers who don't know much about video cards, but know the name Nvidia.
Actually, I have bought a couple from Best Buy before. Of course, at the time, (1994) there wasn't much commerce on the Internet and the only way to get them cheaper was mail order places from the back of PC Computing. The last one I bought was a Diamond Stealth II S220 PCI card with a Rendition 2100 chip.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/3d-accelerator-card-reviews,42-8.html
Pretty much everything since then has been purchased from Newegg.
the suicide rate for foxconn is below the national average, even beklow the us national average. it just gets bad press so they put nets up. its not like lemmings going off a cliff over there its a huge factory and facility the size of a city of coarse there is gonna be an errant suicide or two
If you are trying to avoid Foxconn made products, you may as well abandon computers, gaming consoles and cell phones collectively.