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Gigabyte will not cut motherboard prices

Gigabyte Technology will not follow recent moves by rival Asustek Computer to cut its motherboard prices, according to Richard Ma, vice president of Gigabyte. Ma pointed out that if Gigabyte followed suit, it would only force Asustek to cut its prices further causing an impact on the whole industry. Gigabyte's strategy will be to focus on improving quality to attract consumers. Since Gigabyte already has a firm base in the motherboard channel market and most of the consumers who purchase mid-range or high-end motherboards put quality as their first concern, Ma believes these factors will help counter Asustek's price cut strategy.

Gigabyte is conservative about its motherboard shipments in 2008 due to falling demand and the new price competition, but will still maintain its original goal of 20 million units, an increase of 4.5% compared to shipments of 19.14 million units in 2007. Since profits from the company's OEM motherboard business are low, Gigabyte is continuing to reduce its proportion of total shipments. The brand business currently accounts for 80% of total shipments. Shipments in July and August did not meet the company's original expectations, but demand in September has started to recover. Sequential shipment growth in the third quarter will be around 10-15%, stated Ma, adding that he expects shipments in October to be better than in September, and, with Intel set to launch its Core i7 CPUs and X58 chipset in November, sequential shipments growth in the fourth quarter will be around 10%. Graphics card shipments will be around 3.5-4 million units in 2008.

DigiTimes Daily IT News

Posted by | Fri, Sep 26, 2008 - 10:33 AM