Abit, a legendary producer of mainboards for enthusiasts of performance and overclocking, may finally quit the market of motherboards by year end due to cut-throat competition and following a series of rumours about the company’s exit from the business.

Citing sources among South-East Asian distributors, Hexus web-site reported that Abit had notified its partners about its plan to stop production of mainboards at the end of 2008. The company reportedly plans to continue fulfilling orders till the end of the year, or until supplies last, and also honour its warranties for three years afterwards. While the information is strictly unofficial, it may be correct, as rumours of such kind have been floating around for months now.

Earlier this year a web-site reported that expectations of Universal Scientific Industrial (USI) for Abit’s business had not been met and the holding was mulling to pull out Abit brand from the motherboard business and refocus the company on other devices. It was claimed that Abit sold from two to three million mainboards last year and this year the company’s sales dropped even further. The company denied the information back then.

At Computex Taipei 2008 trade show Abit demonstrated FunFab digital photo frame with integrated printer as well as a mobile Internet device (MID). In addition, the company also demonstrated a series of new mainboards and put a lot of hopes on platforms based on Intel P45 core-logic.

USI acquired Abit from the previous owner for $10.9 million (350 million Taiwanese dollars) in cash and 20 million preferred shares of USI’s newly established subsidiary for Abit’s motherboard brand “Abit”, as well as all patents, products, business and human resources related to its motherboard business. The take over took place in early 2006.

Abit and USI did not comment on the news-story.

Tags: Abit, Mainboards, Business