14 DAY TRIAL // As PC demand dropped, motherboard sales decreased as well, something that did not lead to a very favorable situation as far as the retail channel is concerned.
Inventory levels are currently at too high a level, forcing vendors to reduce orders to component makers and ODMs.
This is all a consequence of the increased shipments between November and December 2012.
Motherboard vendors had certain targets that they wanted to reach in 2012, so they boosted shipments during that time.
Now they are suffering the consequences, as demand did not rise.
ASUS has already reduced its ODM shipments by 100,000 a week, hoping it will at least manage five million shipments in Q1 2013. Gigabyte expects to do a bit better, but not by much.
It will take months for excess supply to be cleared. Order rebounds aren't expected before May, and even then Haswell-ready mainboards will probably take precedence, causing inventories of existing AMD and Intel-compatible motherboards to languish.