This just goes to show how weak general PC sales have become

Dec 18, 2012 14:55 GMT  ·  By

Analysts have been going on and on about the weak PC market, but they never did agree on just how bad the situation was.

According to a certain report, the situation is bad indeed. So bad that motherboard makers have suffered an average drop in profit of 20%.

There are still some who, due to optimism or whatever else, think 2012 will end on a less sour note, with a 10% decline.

Nevertheless, with some players suffering a fall of 40%, even those that did relatively well won't be able to soften the situation much.

A slump in shipments is one cause. The other is the price drop, which will reduce Gigabyte's overall profit even though shipments have grown by 2 million this year.

All motherboard companies, like ASUS, Gigabyte and ASRock, will publish financial reports in the first quarter of 2013. That is when we will see exactly how bad things have gotten.