Gigabyte Technology is expected to ship over five million motherboards in the first quarter of 2014, having a chance to surpass Asustek Computer, which is expected to ship about five million units, according to sources from the upstream supply chain.
Gigabyte shipped over 20 million motherboards in 2013 mainly thanks to strong demand in China, which accounted for about 40% of the shipments, the sources said.
However, since the high-end motherboard sector is currently being dominated by Asustek, Gigabyte will need to strengthen its competitiveness in the sector in order to improve its profitability, the sources noted.
Gigabyte president Alexander Ma previously pointed out that the company will focus on pushing into the mid-range and high-end markets in 2014 to boost its product ASP and gross margins. He expects global motherboard shipments to drop 5% on year in 2014, but the company’s shipments will stay flat or grow slightly compared to 2013.
Compared to the top-2 players, smaller motherboard vendors ASRock, Micro-Star International (MSI), Elitegroup Computer Systems (ECS) and Biostar are expected to suffer sequential shipment drops between 10-15% in the first quarter, the sources added.