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A top-four motherboard maker will drop out of the market
Posted: Fri Jan 30, 2009 11:11 am
by Apoptosis
Not sure if you saw this a couple weeks back, but I thought it was interesting...
source
Monica Chen, Taipei; Joseph Tsai, DIGITIMES [Friday 9 January 2009]
One of the top-four motherboard makers, Asustek Computer, Gigabyte Technology, Elite group Computer Systems (ECS) and Micro-Star International (MSI), will drop out of the market within the next few years since the limited expansion of the market will not be able to support the growth of the four giants any more, according to Henry Lu, vice president of products at MSI.
Notebook shipments recently hit the critical industry milestone of surpassing those of desktop PCs, pointed out Lu. Additionally, shipments of motherboards and graphics cards have been on the decline since the third quarter of 2008 indicating that the market will not see any further expansion, Lu said. The exit of some second-tier motherboard makers means the market will be able to support the top-four makers over the next three years, but not much beyond that, Lu predicted.
After the three years, one of the top-four makers will need to be eliminated from the market in order for the other three to remain profitable, said Lu. In the meantime, the makers are likely to see motherboard shipments maintain level or decline slightly.
With demand from Europe and North America dropping plus all the makers have been trying to clear inventory, non of the first-tier motherboard makers achieved their shipment goals in 2008, while some second-tier makers even saw their revenues and shipments from the motherboard segment drop by half, according to industry sources.
Asustek Computer is estimated to have shipped around 21 million motherboards in 2008. Although shipments held level on year, the company did not see any growth in profits due to a decline in ASPs, according to the sources. Meanwhile Gigabyte Technology is said to have shipped around 19 million motherboards in 2008, less than its target of 20 million, the sources said. However, branded shipments grew 14% from 14 million units in 2007 to 16 million units in 2008.
MSI shipped around 16 million motherboards in 2008, according to estimates, far less than goal of 20 million, while branded shipments were only seven million units. However, with the help from notebook and netbook product lines, the company's revenues in 2008 still broke the NT$100 billion (US$3 billion) mark.
Finally, Elitegroup Computer Systems (ECS) shipped around 21 million motherboard in 2008, with around eight million from its branded segment, the industry sources said.
Re: A top-four motherboard maker will drop out of the market
Posted: Fri Jan 30, 2009 11:19 am
by GI-JOE
MSI would be most likely in my books.
Re: A top-four motherboard maker will drop out of the market
Posted: Fri Jan 30, 2009 1:23 pm
by camaroguy1998
Since ABIT dropped from the market last year(2008) my vote goes for MSI also!
Re: A top-four motherboard maker will drop out of the market
Posted: Fri Jan 30, 2009 2:36 pm
by InspectahACE
I like MSI..mainly since every board I've had to replace, I've replaced it with an MSI and has worked wonders..(granted it was more around a $100-$130 board i get but still)...I would be kind of saddened to see MSI go..so to be a true fanboy(tho im not..I like other brands more) Im gonna vote for ECS to go..they have had some come ups and some darn good stuff, but it's ECS lol..my first 2 mother boards ever were ECS and ill never forget the debacle..shocked they sold more than MSI really...never would've thought I'd see that..you just never know anymore
Re: A top-four motherboard maker will drop out of the market
Posted: Fri Jan 30, 2009 2:51 pm
by Apoptosis
MSI has a solid line of netbooks though... Gigabyte was my vote. With shrinking desktop PC sales and a slowing economy they will sell about half of the motherboards in 2009 that the did in 2008 (as will all the companies if they really did cut production by half as it was reported already). If that is the case Gigabyte will stand to get hurt the most.
Re: A top-four motherboard maker will drop out of the market
Posted: Fri Jan 30, 2009 3:05 pm
by martini161
why gigabyte? they have a very alrge market share in the enthusiast market! they are always the first people i look at when buying a motherboard
Re: A top-four motherboard maker will drop out of the market
Posted: Fri Jan 30, 2009 3:08 pm
by GI-JOE
martini161 wrote:why gigabyte? they have a very alrge market share in the enthusiast market! they are always the first people i look at when buying a motherboard
Same here!
Re: A top-four motherboard maker will drop out of the market
Posted: Fri Jan 30, 2009 3:09 pm
by FZ1
I hope it's not Asus, I like their boards
Re: A top-four motherboard maker will drop out of the market
Posted: Fri Jan 30, 2009 3:10 pm
by martini161
i think it will be MSI, especially the way they said at the begining about how the laptops were doing so well. i assumed they meant they were dropping out of the mother board market, not out of the market all together...
Re: A top-four motherboard maker will drop out of the market
Posted: Fri Jan 30, 2009 3:44 pm
by InspectahACE
Heck i hope Asus doesn't lol..my next motherboard is gonna be from them lol
Re: A top-four motherboard maker will drop out of the market
Posted: Fri Jan 30, 2009 3:52 pm
by Apoptosis
martini161 wrote:why gigabyte? they have a very large market share in the enthusiast market! they are always the first people i look at when buying a motherboard
and where is ABIT now? When I started Legit Reviews back in 2002 they were the motherboard to have... Today they are gone. Enthusiast boards get a ton of PR, but guess what everyone posting rave reviews on forums like xtreme systems were provided a free sample. They may look like the 'hot' product to us, but average consumers don't buy them and the ones we see in all the forums were free samples that were given out because everyone know things sell from the top down.
In todays market you have to diversify... Look at OCZ buying PC Power & Cooling along with Hypersonic... They now to DRAM, Flash, CPU Coolers, SSD's, Notebooks, Desktop, Power Supplies, NIA's, Keyboards, Mice and so on... It was needed to grow the company and survive. Companies like ASUS have struck gold with the EeePC series and with their upcoming We PC and keyboards they are only going to grow more. Look at Dell planning on releasing a smartphone to compete with Apple. MSI, ECS and Gigabyte have mainboards, notebooks, servers, video cards and so on, but which of the three has the lowest sales and growth?
Re: A top-four motherboard maker will drop out of the market
Posted: Fri Jan 30, 2009 4:49 pm
by ibleet
Definitely NOT Gigabyte or Asus....
Re: A top-four motherboard maker will drop out of the market
Posted: Fri Jan 30, 2009 7:10 pm
by skier
i think if gigabyte dropped out, it would mean the inevitable end to desktop computer building.
Re: A top-four motherboard maker will drop out of the market
Posted: Sat Jan 31, 2009 6:56 am
by KnightRid
I think Gigabyte and Asus are staying around for a LONG time. I picked ECS but MSI was a close runner up. I just dont think ECS can keep up with the low end offerings, and not very good high end offerings.
Mike
Re: A top-four motherboard maker will drop out of the market
Posted: Sat Jan 31, 2009 9:18 pm
by x.clay
I love my Gigabyte board so I hope they hang in there. I am guessing MSI or ECS will be the first to go belly up.
Re: A top-four motherboard maker will drop out of the market
Posted: Mon Feb 02, 2009 1:29 pm
by slugbug
My vote goes to ECS. The few boards I've had from them sucked.
Re: A top-four motherboard maker will drop out of the market
Posted: Mon Feb 02, 2009 2:33 pm
by GI-JOE
slugbug wrote:My vote goes to ECS. The few boards I've had from them sucked.
But you got to figure, ECS targets more of the mainstream market. Which I dare say is more than the enthusiast market.
Also, I had a couple ECS boards, and they are very good and stable for the money at STOCK settings. Now if you try to overclock, that's when they suck.
Re: A top-four motherboard maker will drop out of the market
Posted: Mon Feb 02, 2009 3:25 pm
by martini161
gigabyte also has a huge mainstream market share. like the p35 ds3l that was pretty much a standard for budget boards in the p35 era
Re: A top-four motherboard maker will drop out of the market
Posted: Tue Feb 03, 2009 1:03 am
by camaroguy1998
I dont know where Foxconn falls in the lineup but, they came on strong a couple years ago and now you dont hardly see their boards.
Will they survive?
Re: A top-four motherboard maker will drop out of the market
Posted: Tue Feb 03, 2009 7:45 am
by Apoptosis
not sure... we've all seen Chaintech, ABIT and others shut down, so you never know.