X-bit labs

December 2003 Hardware News Overview (page 4)

Category: Editorial

by Andy Yaschenko

[ 12/19/2003 | 05:36 PM ]

Mainboards

People at ASUS Computer should be proud of the last year’s results: 19.6 million mainboards in the three quarters only. Considering the fact that the company has reached an output of 3-3.8 million mainboards monthly, ASUS is likely to end this year with a record of 30 million shipped mainboards. Excellent management did the trick – just a year ago ASUS was far behind Elitegroup in numbers.

ECS, on the contrary, was quite confusing in its marketing decisions, with the ensuing results: 1.71 million mainboards sold in October against ASUS’ 3.78 million. And ASUS doesn’t intend to slow down a jot, as it is going to boost its mainboard shipments by 20% more. This means 35 million products per year, and ASUS’ one third of the world’s market. If the competitors don’t take measures, that is.

Elitegroup may try. Although forecast to have poorer showings in November than in October, the company claims to maintain and even push up the October bar as it has taken part of ASRock’s market share.

Characteristically, ECS also promises a growth of 20% for the next year, that is, about 20 million mainboards annually. Well, I have no great doubts about ASUS, but Elitegroup’s promises are another matter. At least, this year the company suffered a profit reduction of 76.4% in the first nine months compared to the same stretch of 2002!

Now, chipsets. VIA Technologies may strike a Taiwan-wide celebration. Having made it up with Intel, the company reported a profit for this quarter, however small, for the first time in months. It also boosted its sales volumes by 35.3% over the previous quarter. This can be viewed from the opposite point: it’s indicative of the company’s failure in the past rather than a success in the present. Other companies have increased their sales, too. For example, SiS had a 9% sales growth compared to the previous quarter.

There’re a few interesting things about the whole situation. VIA Technologies has become a sales leader, although questionable, while SiS outdid it in pure profit, in double. First thing to come into my head is that VIA is desperately dumping fighting for the volumes and the market share. There’s one more fact to confirm the point: Chinese manufacturers set FOB prices for PT800-based mainboards (it’s VIA’s analog of Intel’s 848P, as you know) at about $40-45. That’s the mainboard’s price, not the chipset’s one, of course. So the chipset should cost them about $15-17.