ASUS Says Motherboards Will Get More Expensive in 2011

While some market segments are flourishing, not all news seems to be positive, at least from consumers' point of view, especially if what certain reports say turns out to be true.

As always, the web is full of rumors and reports about lawsuits, possible buyouts, collaborations , software and hardware, etc., happening in the field of IT.

Some things are good, others bad, at least according to some, but the general idea is that the IT industry is recovering from the last consequences left behind by the harsh years of 2008 and 2009.

On the motherboard front, sales are bound to be at least decent, knowing the emergence of new CPUs from Intel and APUs (accelerated processing units) from AMD.

Nevertheless, for various reasons, there is the belief that prices of mainboards will increase this year (2011), at least that's what an ASUS official is said to think.

On average, motherboards are expected to get 5% to 10% more expensive, on average, although they may even jump by 15%.

The increase is meant to cope with the rising material costs, the NT dollar's appreciation and the labor shortage currently plaguing China.

Granted, the so-called growth momentum of motherboards or sales of DIY (do it yourself) channels are not expected to be affected by this, since some PC parts and components have seen price cuts, meaning that the motherboard rising prices will be offset, at least to some extent.

This all is the opinion of Chewei Lin, general manager of motherboard business unit at Asustek.

Speaking of ASUS, the company expects its motherboard shipments to rise to 22.68 million units in 2011, corresponding to a jump of 5% compared to last year's 21.6 million.

The latter sum was achieved partly thanks to the 5.6 million shipments over the course of the fourth quarter alone.