Motherboard Makers Turning to Alternative Products for Bigger Profits

[[Coi] Mr.CLuBBeR]

As Intel's Haswell refresh looms, Asus and other mobo players look to other areas to boost profits

Intel is getting ready to refresh its Haswell platform, and when that happens, it should spark some sales in the motherboard industry. Motherboard makers should also get a boost from XP users looking to upgrade their ancient boxes. Despite these market drivers, however, word on the web is that Asus and other motherboard players have begun pushing their other products much more aggressively in hopes of pulling in a bigger profit.
So says Digitimes, which itself is citing "market watchers" with eyes on the situation. Asus, Gigabyte, MSI, and ASRock are all focusing on their "non-motherboard businesses" pretty hard these days. Specifically, ASRock is making a big push in the server industry with related products after achieving flat performance on year with its motherboard shipments in 2013. It's a long-term strategy that ASRock believes will pay off in a couple years from now.
MSI, on the other hand, is pushing mid-range and high-end gaming laptops. This is something we've seen ourselves, as we've posted several MSI gaming laptop announcements during the past year. It's a crowded field that also includes competition from Gigabyte and Asus.
Gigabyte shipped 20 million motherboards last year and expects to ship 22 million in 2014. It's going to be a close race between Gigabyte and Asus for the top spot. At the same time, both companies are looking at notebooks, tablets, handsets, and networking equipment to generate additional revenue.
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