Posted on Saturday, December 08 2007 @ 9:12 CET by Thomas De MaesschalckThe firms claim the Chinese firms cut costs by using substandard parts:
Most of China's motherboard brands outsource production to OEMs which gives them more flexibility over expense control. Additionally, China makers only demand cheap costs rather than product quality, and face little in the way of regulations if their products are found to have problems, claimed sources at Taiwan-based motherboard makers.
In order to reach the lowest price, China makers have employed several strategies including the use of the older ICH7 southbridge on their P35 motherboards which is against Intel's official specification, and is something Taiwan makers would not do, the sources protested. However, the US$60 motherboards still offer almost comparable features and functions as the more expensive Taiwan-designed models, which means the Taiwan makers are finding themselves at a disadvantage, added the sources.
