Motherboard sales to slide 10 percent in 2018

Sources in the Taiwanese supply chain told DigiTimes that the outlook for branded motherboard sales remains poor. Sales of branded motherboards are expected to fall 10 percent in 2018, with the market size of DIY PC motherboards dropping by an estimated 15 percent.

The figure implies sales of branded motherboards may fall to just 38.7 million units in 2018, a far cry from the 75 million that were sold in 2013.

The site says gaming motherboards are still selling strong, but just a limited number of players are profiting from this as ASUS owns nearly 70 percent of this market. The report also has an update about Gigabyte, DigiTimes says some market watchers are now more optimistic about Gigabyte's prospects:

Among the first-tier brand vendors, Gigabyte Technology, due to its business restructuring process, has experienced a sharp drop in its motherboard shipments to 12.6 million units in 2017, from the 16.2 million units shipped a year earlier.

However, some market watchers are optimistic about Gigabyte's operations to return stable in the first half of 2018, allowing the company to regain its lost orders.