According to MIC (Market Intelligence Center, Taiwan), an ICT industry research institute based in Taipei, worldwide motherboard shipment volume is not expected to be very strong in the second quarter of 2008. "This is mainly due to the fact that the Western European market began to see a slowdown in orders from the second half of March as it entered the regional off-season early", said MIC Industry Analyst Vincent Chang. "The relatively weak performance of the North American market in the first quarter is expected to continue into the second quarter. As for emerging markets, besides the major large-sized emerging markets, small countries without raw material or energy resource exports are expected to be affected by rising prices of materials, oil, and food, impacting these countries' shipment in the second quarter."

Meanwhile, as the end of the second quarter and the third quarter are the primary period in which new product specifications are rolled out and during which prices of existing products are adjusted, some channel players will wait for new products and lower second-quarter inventory levels. For these reasons, worldwide motherboard shipment volume in the second quarter of 2008 is expected to see a 9% sequential decline and reach approximately 34.6 million units. Shipment value decline could be smaller than shipment volume decline in the second quarter due to higher production costs.

In the first quarter of 2008 worldwide motherboard shipment volume is estimated at 38.0 million units. Shipment volume only declined 8.0% sequentially and grew 4.9% year-on-year. These developments can be attributed to several factors: the Euro continued to grow stronger, causing buying power in the Euro zone to strengthen. Also, the European market saw demand from the fourth quarter of 2007 deferred to the first quarter of 2008. Channel players adjusted inventory levels back to normal after relatively low levels in the fourth quarter of 2007, which created another wave of shipment growth. Furthermore, emerging markets such as China, Eastern Europe, India, and the Middle East experienced strong growth, becoming major sources of growth for the industry.

Due to rising costs of raw materials, Chinese labor, and electricity and transportation in China, ASP only declined slightly in the first quarter of 2008 by US$0.3 to US$48.6, even though the share of new products did not grow significantly. Worldwide motherboard shipment value in the first quarter of 2008 is estimated at US$1.85 billion, with the rate of decline lower than expected.

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