Nvidia expects first Ion in Q2 2009

The first Nvidia Ion powered devices are set to launch in Q2 2009 according to sources at Fudzila. Initially these are likely to be nettop based rather than in a netbook, however it seems that a number of OEMs are interested in the platform. A number of OEMs do not want to be the first to jump though and will await the reaction from the first releases before committing to the platform.

We know that Nvidia has been in contact with Lenovo, Founder and some second-tier white-box manufactures pushing its platform for use in netbooks. Although the chipset’s price is US$5-10 higher than Intel’s 945, its support for HD video and graphics output has earned quite a bit of interest. Watch this space.