In the third quarter of 2009, the world's major economies saw signs of stabilization, and demand in the European market also exhibited slight growth. In addition, motherboard vendors continued to invest in the Chinese market. As a result, worldwide motherboard industry's shipment volume advanced 12.3% sequentially in the third quarter of 2009 to 36.12 million units in comparison with shipment volume in the second quarter. Even though the third-quarter shipment volume hit the new high in 2009, the industry's still declined 9.4% year-on-year when compared with the shipment volume in the third quarter of 2008. Observing the third-quarter shipments in the past three years, the industry's growth rates have been dwindling annually.