Asustek Computer and Gigabyte Technology, facing weak market demand in Europe, the US and China, are expected to fail to achieve their motherboard shipment goals for 2011 and only ship 22 million and 17.5-18 million units, respectively, about one million units less than their original targets, according to sources from motherboard players.

Although Intel is already set to launch its upcoming Sandy Bridge E-based CPUs and X79 chipsets for the high-end market in the middle of November to help attract consumers, due to leaked information that Intel will launch upgraded Sandy Bridge E C2 CPUs and upgraded chipsets only two months after, consumers are likely to wait until the upgraded models are launched.

Asustek shipped 11.4 million motherboards in the first half and six million units in the third quarter, and benefiting from its strong purchasing power, the company's gross margins for its motherboard business in 2011 are still expected to be stronger than its competitors' 10-15% and reach 25%.

Meanwhile, Gigabyte is expected to see its gross margin drop slightly in 2011.

Since the market status of the second half is rather pessimistic, Asustek and Gigabyte are currently competing on price to gain share in the motherboard market with smaller players such as Micro-Star International (MSI), ASRock and Elitegroup Computer System (ECS) following suit. Entry-level H61-based motherboards, which account for a major proportion of these players' shipments saw a price drop of 10-15% recently with prices of Z68-based motherboards also likely to drop soon.

Current quotes for X79 chipset are around US$51, Z68 at US$38 and H61 US$15, the sources added.

Source:digitimes