Holiday sales in North America and Europe, along with the lingering effects of back-to-school sales from the previous quarter, brought a warming trend sweeping through the consumer motherboard market in the fourth quarter of 2004. Corporate demand also grew steadily, which together with the energized consumer market, allowed Greater Chinese motherboard shipments to reach approximately 38.2 million units in the fourth quarter of 2004. However, growth was unable to rival the outstanding performance of the fourth quarter of 2003, as a gap in the supply of Intel's 865 series chipsets cut into shipments. As a result, year-on-year growth was restrained to 4.2%, but sequential growth was higher at 13.1%.

ASP (Average Selling Price) rebounded in the fourth quarter of 2004 due to a rise in the share of motherboard shipments adopting high-end chipsets such as Intel's new 915 series and AMD's K8 series. ASP for Greater Chinese motherboards climbed to US$56.7. Although ASP marked a sequential rise, it wasn't enough to avoid a year-on-year slide; ASP fell by 7.4% in comparison with the fourth quarter of 2003. Total shipment value for Greater Chinese motherboard makers also declined by 3.3% year-on-year to a total of nearly US$2.2 billion.

With rollouts of new 64-bit CPUs (Central Processing Unit) and Intel's 915PL and 915GL chipsets just around the bend, shipment volume and ASP for high-end motherboards are expected to rise in the first quarter of 2005. In addition, AMD and Intel are preparing to carry out routine price cuts on mid-range and value-line offerings during the middle of the first quarter, which should stimulate demand in certain segments of the market. All in all, a 3.8% year-on-year rise and 10.1% sequential falloff in shipment volume for Greater Chinese motherboard makers can be anticipated in the first quarter of 2005. 

Growth margins for 2005 as a whole are expected to be limited as PC replacement enters the weak segment of the cycle. Although rollouts are scheduled for new high-tech products such as dual-core CPUs, BTX platform, and Intel's 945/955 series chipsets, the present lack of corresponding operating systems and applications designed to fit the new hardware will restrict its ability to spread extensively in the consumer market for the near future. As a result, shipment volume for Greater Chinese motherboard makers for 2005 is expected to grow at only around 3.2% year-on-year to reach approximately 139 million units.

Market Intelligence Center, based in Taipei, Taiwan, was founded in 1987. MIC is Taiwan's premier IT industry research and consulting firm providing intelligence, in-depth analysis, and strategic consulting services on global IT product and technology trends, focusing on markets and industries in Asia-Pacific. MIC is part of the Institute for Information Industry. https://mic.iii.org.tw/english