14 DAY TRIAL // Apparently mirroring the overall favorable performance of the PC market segment, the motherboard industry seems to have done well for itself during the first two quarters of 2010, with Gigabyte and ASRock scoring some fairly solid profits.
The time to post financial results cones periodically, and while sometimes IT companies may not be especially thrilled with their results, Gigabyte and ASRock may, in fact, be fairly satisfied this time around.
According to a report made by Digitimes, both Taiwan-based motherboard makers managed to gain profits during the first two quarters of 2010.
ASRock, for one, shipped roughly 3.5 million motherboard during this first half of 2010 and, thus, announced net profits of NT$591 million, while the EPS was of NT$5.14.
While impressive, this performance is expected to be outmatched by that of the second half, though only barely, because of concerns regarding the European market.
Thus, shipments will reach 4.5-4.7 million in total, which makes 8-8.2 million the estimated total for 2010.
Gigabyte also scored profits, of NT$1.15 billion, the equivalent of US$36.01 million, but graphics cards and networking products also contributed, not just motherboards.
Still, mainboards do account for 60% of all its revenues, and 90% of all sold motherboards were own-brand products, leaving only 10% to OEMs.
Graphics cards provide 10-15% of the rest, and networking products account for 15-20%. As for notebooks and handsets, they make up the remaining less than 10%.
According to Digitimes' sources, motherboard sales are expected to reach their peak, as far as the second half of the year is concerned, in September, after which they will drop gradually, with fourth quarter revenues slated to decrease 10-15% sequentially.
Finally, Gigabyte plans to digest its mobile PC inventories through price cuts to such items as the Windows 7-running, Atom N280-based Booktop M1022 from NT$16,000 to NT$9,999.
Through such means, it hopes to sell 500,000 notebooks and netbooks for the whole year, after it only managed 200,000 in 1H 2010.