Gigabyte overtook ASUS in motherboard market in Q1 2015

Sources in the supply chain told DigiTimes that the motherboard market has hit a rough patch as demand from both China and Europe is still weak. Vendors like MSI, ECS and Biostar are expected to see shipments decline this year and top-tier motherboard makers ASUS and Gigabyte aren't expected to hit their 20 million unit target.

The site writes Gigabyte overtook ASUS in the first quarter of this year, the firm shipped 4.7-4.8 million motherboards whereas ASUS was able to sell just 4.5 million units. For the first half of 2015, motherboard shipments from ASUS and Gigabyte are expected to come in at around 9 million units each.

MSI and ASRock are estimated to ship 2.8-3.2 million motherboards each in the first half and may only achieve less than 6.5 million units each for 2015.

ASRock is already seeing a slight rise in profits from the motherboard business, but its shipment volume in 2015 is expected to be a lot weaker than those in the previous years. MSI's motherboard business had break-even operation in 2014 but is unlikely to see significant profit growth in 2015.

As a resulted of the poor performance of the motherboard segment, MSI has turned its focus on gaming laptops while ASRock is targeting the IPC server market.