In this article dedicated to FIC Samba-1845 we mentioned that a lot of personal computer users started to regard their PCs as regular appliances during the last couple of years. As a result of such trend, a number of hardware enthusiasts decreased very substantially and the companies, who concentrated on the products for DIY (Do-It-Yourself) market started to suffer from lowering revenues and profits. Therefore, a lot of manufacturers of computer components needed to make certain market researches and offer something the customers would like. Barebone computers appeared to be a great alternative for both brand-name PCs and DIY computers for a lot of people due to ease of use and high quality. Apparently, some companies, who concentrated on mainboards in the past now turn to devices like barebones.

For instance, Shuttle reported the growing demand on their barebone systems on the recent press conference. According to them, barebones are going to account over 30% the total company’s revenue for the second half the year. Shuttle expects to ship nearly 250 thousands such units in the year 2002 and multiply this figure twice in 2003. During the first half of 2002 the manufacturer sold approximately 100 thousands of its barebone systems. There is nothing surprising in the fact that the company expects the volume to grow since Shuttle manufactures a lot of different models for all market segments and even sells some to its OEM customers, to Creative Technology, for example (see this news-story).

Presently Shuttle is one of a few Taiwanese mainboard makers to enjoy relatively high profit margin, see the yesterday’s news-story Third Quarter Financial Results of the Taiwanese Mainboard Manufacturers for more details on the matter.