14 DAY TRIAL // Embargoes are an intrinsic part of what makes capitalism go round, since they help corporations control new product releases and their effect on the economy, and their own revenues, of course. ASUS might not care that much about them anymore though.
Intel has set the embargo on 9-Series chipsets and motherboards for May 11, which is when its new Haswell refresh CPUs will come out.
Sure, the chips have already been unveiled, but they won't actually begin shipping before then. Something about raising hype a little first.
That said, motherboards powered by 9-series chipsets are supposed to make their appearance at the same time as the CPUs.
Unfortunately, some companies have already unveiled their product lineups, ASUS being one of them. ASRock too, but ASUS might just cause the whole market segment to flip on end.
Why? Because it's reportedly planning to ship its motherboards on Monday, April 28, 2014, instead of May 11, embargo or no embargo.
And if this happens, all other mainboard makers will have to do the same, otherwise ASUS will enjoy a nice monopoly for about two weeks.
We understand the motives for this, more or less. ASUS's Z97 boards did, after all, leak early, and other OEMs are officially releasing their products as well, even if they are paper launches (release of a product without actual market availability).
However, ASUS might also be worrying needlessly over the potential bad impact of the wait until May 11. Assuming the report is accurate anyway.
Even if hype does settle down prematurely, it's not like the number of buyers will go down that much. And while Intel's Haswell refresh CPU might act as a catalyst for new PC hardware purchases (including motherboards), they might not lead to as large a surge in demand as some, no doubt, expect.
After all, it's not just the new Intel CPUs that the 9-Series chipsets are intended for, but also the Devil’s Canyon units (unlocked, K-series CPUs for overclocking) that will debut later this year. Then, there's Broadwell, scheduled for late 2014 – early 2015. Those chips, too, will be supported by Z97 motherboards. All in all, there will be a steady market for the new platforms for a fairly long time.
We could even say that the series of platforms that will succeed this one (likely expected in Q4 2014) will have bigger problems. After all, many of their potential buyers will have already bought one of the upcoming models and won't be up for getting another one for years.