FOLLOW UP: DFI Denies Abandoning Enthusiast Mainboard Business.

Diamond Flower Information, a well-known second-tier mainboard maker, may stop producing mainboards for desktops in order to concentrate on industrial solutions. While the information is not confirmed, this would fit into typical strategy of smaller motherboard manufacturers to withdraw from the mainstream market.

According to Spanish-language ChileHardware web-site, DFI will withdraw from the market of enthusiast and desktop-class mainboards due to flat sales or market share increases.

DFI became well known among enthusiasts several year ago with the release of the LanParty mainboard series, which has become very popular among overclockers since then. However, the primary business of DFI are mainboards for industrial computing, a more predictable market with stable sales that does not require massive investments into research and development.

Taiwan-based DFI said it was the world’s No. 7 largest mainboard manufacturer back in 2001 and has branches in the U.S., Japan, Europe and China.

Mainboard market has been experiencing serious reshuffling in the recent years, as larger players have been gaining market share rather quickly. As a result, consolidations in the mainboard and computer components markets have been going for several years now just like re-focusing of several compaines. During the last 12 to 18 months Walton acquired a stake in Chaintech, Abit was bought by USI, Leadtek Research teamed up with Foxconn, Gigabyte formed joint-venture with Asus and several other deals were conducted.

Officials for DFI did not comment on the news-story.