Motherboard maker AOpen expects to see a more than 30% growth in its barebone systems shipments this year, with total sales rising from 2.7 million to three million units in 2001 to 3.5 million to 3.9 million units in 2002.
Tony Yang, marketing manager of AOpen, said that last year complete-unit products, which consist of major components such as processors, hard drives and memory, accounted for 20% of the company’s barebone systems shipments. Currently, 90-95% of AOpen’s barebone systems are aimed at overseas markets, and 70-80% of the products are marketed under the brand name AOpen.
Yang added that the company’s present shipment ratio between Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and Intel-based products is 1:4. In the Intel-platform segment, Pentium III/Celeron-based systems still account for 60% of overall shipments, as market demand for Pentium 4 products is only fledgling.
Yang said that the company has adopted the BTO (build-to-order) model for barebone systems production and has followed the Dell Computer strategy for the business, focusing on direct marketing and low-price PC sales. Through the strategies, AOpen hopes to avoid losses from inventories of products with rapidly declining prices.
Article translated by Christy Lee and edited by Zoran Pavlovski
