Posted on Saturday, September 27 2008 @ 4:47 CEST by Thomas De Maesschalck
DigiTimes
heard from Gigabyte vice president Richard Ma that they will not follow ASUS' recent price cut moves:
Ma pointed out that if Gigabyte followed suit, it would only force Asustek to cut its prices further causing an impact on the whole industry. Gigabyte's strategy will be to focus on improving quality to attract consumers.
Since Gigabyte already has a firm base in the motherboard channel market and most of the consumers who purchase mid-range or high-end motherboards put quality as their first concern, Ma believes these factors will help counter Asustek's price cut strategy.
Gigabyte is conservative about its motherboard shipments in 2008 due to falling demand and the new price competition, but will still maintain its original goal of 20 million units, an increase of 4.5% compared to shipments of 19.14 million units in 2007.
Since profits from the company's OEM motherboard business are low, Gigabyte is continuing to reduce its proportion of total shipments. The brand business currently accounts for 80% of total shipments.
