Motherboard shipments on track to decline 10 percent this year

Industry sources confided to DigiTimes that motherboard sales are expected to continue to deteriorate this year. While there's some hope among research firms that there are some green shoots in global PC shipments, the motherboard makers expect their volume will decline over 10 percent versus the year before.

The site says motherboard shipments came in at under 50 million units in 2016 and it seems there's little hope that Intel's or AMD's new platforms will be able to turn the tide.

Sources from motherboard players pointed out that notebooks have been gradually taking demand away from traditional PCs as a result of their better specifications, smaller form factors and cheaper prices. Thanks to rising demand from China especially from its rural areas, the motherboard market had still been able to maintain stable shipments in the couple of years prior to 2015, but such support has been weakening since 2015.

In addition to weakening demand from traditional PC market segment, exchange rate fluctuations, rising component prices and component shortages are also creating difficulties for motherboard players' operations, hurting their shipments and profitability.