With Asustek Computer and Gigabyte Technologies continuing to expand their presences in China's tier-4 to -6 cities as well as online channels, some China-based motherboard players reportedly may quit the market in 2015, while Taiwan-based players will turn to focus on OEM orders or stop pushing into China's motherboard market, according to sources from the upstream supply chain.
The PC DIY market saw shipments of 75 million motherboards in 2013 with China accounting for 40% of the volume. Sales in China's tier-4 to -6 cities also surpassed those of tier-1 to -3 cities, the sources noted. In 2014, China's motherboard shipments are expected to reach only 27 million units.
Asustek and Gigabyte's motherboard shipments in China are estimated to reach 9-9.5 million units each in 2014. With the top-2 players to account for almost 20 million units of China's total volume in 2014, the rest of the players including ASRock, Micro-Star International (MSI), Elitegroup Computer Systems (ECS) and Biostar, can only share the remaining seven million units.
As for China's high-end gaming market, the segment is also being dominated by Asustek and Gigabyte, allowing them to stay profitable despite fierce price competition.
Article translated by Joseph Tsai
