Mobo makers hope new CPUs will spur demand

Market watchers report motherboard makers hope the new Coffee Lake processors from Intel and the second-gen Ryzen chips from AMD will boost motherboard demand. Since the start of 2018, shipments have been lower than expected. DigiTimes writes expectations are better for Q2 2018:

In addition to seasonality, consumers have been waiting for the arrival of new products from Intel and AMD - which will be available starting April, significantly undermining demand in the first quarter.

Gigabyte shipped around 3.2 million motherboards in the first quarter, lower than the 3.5 million units in the same quarter a year ago.

With Intel and AMD expected to launch a new wave of pricing campaigns for their new products, it is expected to stimulate upgrade demand from consumers in the second quarter.

Brand motherboard shipments remain a though business. Sales fell 15 percent year-over-year to under 13 million units in 2017, and are on track to drop another 10 percent this year.