Pegatron Technologies, contract maker of electronics equipment, which belongs to Asustek Computer, that is set to become independent, will use Asrock brand to compete against first-tier makers of mainboards and graphics cards, including Asus itself, a media report claims.

Asrock was established in 2002 in order to address the market of entry-level mainboards and compete against second-tier motherboard makers. Traditionally, Asustek Computer targeted premium-class product segments with its Asus-branded devices. Even though Asrock continues to mainly sell inexpensive products, from time to time it addresses performance-mainstream or even high-end segments.

After Pegatron will be spun off in July, 2010, the independent company will use Asrock brand to address retail market, reports DigiTimes web-site. The move is likely to make Asrock trademark considerably more recognized and respected around the industry. What is unclear is whether Asrock will be able to successfully compete against Asus, Gigabyte Technologies and MicroStar International (MSI). At present Asrock only competes head-to-head with Elitegroup Computer Systems (ECS), another entry-level mainboards specialist.

It will be interesting to see whether there will be a conflict of interest between Pegatron-Asrock and Asustek itself, who will continue to outsource 30% of its motherboards to its current ODM arm after the spin-off. The reason why Asus decided to spin off its contract manufacturing business was to avoid conflicts of interests with it

Asustek Computer, Asrock and Pegatron Technologies did not comment on the new-story.

Tags: ASUS, Asrock, Pegatron, Business